LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

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DNiTED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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Don't Go to Hell, 



LECTURES AND SERMONS 



-BY- 



W. p. FRANK CABIvKR. 



{"f/^Aa o im-^"^ 



^'<lCf WASHV^-^^: 



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PADUCAH, KY. 

DILDAY & VANSENDEN. 

1894. 



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Tap Libi<ARY 
OF Congress 

WASHINGTON 

PREFACE. 



If you find a single fl9;w«r on the pages of 
this book, store itJU^^e clortet of your memory, 
so that its arond'a may not be wasted. If by 
reading this book a single sinner finds Christ, or 
a single Christian finds consolatian, the author 
will be paid for his trouble. 

AUTHOR. 



SURROUNDING CIRCUMSTANCES. 



I got my early education on a farm, a'hold of 
the plow handles, behind a mule from sun-up 
to sun-down. A mule don't learn a man much 
about booksj but he learns him a good deal of 
mule sense. I would a great deal rather have 
good old practical mule sense without a good 
education than to have a good education without 
practical mule sense. When I talk to a crowd 
I want the people to understand me. I don't 
care what kind of a hammer I use to hit the 
nail on the head, just so I drive it in. I once 
heard an educated fool make a talk. He picked 
every big word out of the dictionary and when 
he got through nobody knew what he was talk- 
ing about. ' When I say ''pisen" everybody 
in this crowd knows what I mean. You know 
that I mean something that will kill. I could 
say poison, but sometimes *'pisen" suits me 
better. I don't care how good your education 
is, you will understand me, but if you havn't 
got any education you'll understand me, too. 



4 don't go to hell. 

You have all got hearts and brains and souls, 
whether you have got education or not, and it 
is the heart, and brain and soul that I want to 
touch, and not the education. If you want to 
learn anything about grammar you had better 
go home and start to school, for you ain't going 
to learn anything about it here; neither am I 
going to attempt to learn you much about the 
Bible, for the meanest and most ignorant 'man 
in this house has got Bible sense enough to 
know that he is going straight down the road to 
Hell, and he has also got Bible sense enough 
to know how to turn around and go back towards 
Heaven. I just want to pile up your sins before 
you and block your pathway to Hell. I want 
to give the Devil a little pisen, and if you find 
it hard medicine to take now, you will find 
after it has had its effect that you'll feel much 
better. The doctor never thinks about how 
bitter his medicine is, it's the result he's after. 
Some of you may think that I am a'going to 
talk to broadcloth and Satan, but I ain't. 
Neither am I a'going to talk to calico and Jehu's. 
I am talking to people and not to wealth, I 
don't care how rich you are. Your riches will 
buy you a carriage and a mansion here on earth, 
but it won't save your soul. A man can take 
one dollar and buy a ticket straight to Hell, but 
he couldn't bribe God to let him one inch nearer 



don't go to hell. 5 

Heaven with all of the millions of all of the 
millionaires of earth. The Devil thinks a heap 
of money. He'll lie for it; he'll steal for it; 
he'll gainble for it, and the meanest of all, 
he'll ruin men's souls, make orphans and 
widows and then starve them to death by sell- 
ing whisky for it. 

You ain't too poor to be good, and you ain't 
too rich to be good. So many people say, ''I'd 
be a better man or a better woman if it wasn't 
for surrounding circumstances." Hell's full of 
people that had surrounding circumstances. If 
you plant corn and let the weeds grow and don't 
plow it and then sit down and say you are 
afraid that you'll not make any corn on account 
of surrounding circumstances. Surrounding 
circumstances will starve you to death if you 
depend on that corn, but if you get up and hoe 
out them weeds and plow the corn you will 
make surrounding circumstances agreeable to 
the growing of corn, and you will have a crop 
and be all right. If you can't be good in your 
surrounding circumstances get up and make 
surrounding circumstances so that you can be 
good. 

If I step on your pet corn don't snap back 
like a yellow cur dog, but do something and get 
rid of your corn so it can't be stepped on any 
more. Out in Color-ado during a time when 



6 

mining excitement was at fever heat, I was 
standing in a gambling house. Oh, yes; I've 
been in gambling houses, and almost every- 
where else on earth. You see, I've devoted 
fifteen years of my life to continual travel, and 
lost my last dollar many a time at faro or 
poker. In the early days of Leadville the gam- 
bling houses were crowded every night in the 
week, Sunday night included. Miners, pros- 
pectors, tourists, rich and poor were all alike 
tr> ing their fortunes at one or the other of the 
various games. The proprietors, with an eye 
to business, saw that whisky flowed as free as 
water, so that the suckers would bite more rap- 
idly. Old gray -haired men that were probably 
pillows of the Church back in some eastern or 
southern home, while in their homes would not 
even think of going to a gambling house, out in 
Leadville among strangers would forget God and 
wife and children, and in the evening take in 
the town and finally drop into a gambling house 
just to look on. They would make surrounding 
circumstances so that the temptation would be 
too strong to resist, and just for fun they would 
purchase a few chips, and from that moment on 
the Devil would take possession of their souls. 
If they won they would be sure to return the 
next night to add to their ill-gotten gains. If 
they lost they would be sure to return just to 



don't go to hell. 7 

get even. So night after night the same old 
faces could be seen, sometimes beaming with 
hope and other times frowning with rage, and 
when the last shining dollar had left the pocket, 
lost in despair. 

The Devil is fishing wHh poles and lines and 
hooks all over this earth, and every hook is 
baited with a big fat worm of deceit, and the 
sucker that nibbles now and gets a taste is sure 
to bite after a while and get the hook hung in 
his gills so that the Devil can easily land him 
in Hell. The shrewd fish will keep away from 
the DeviPs baited hooks. Keep out of evil 
company. Keep out of the saloons and gam- 
bling hells and other places where vice is bred. 
Ice will make things cold, and fire will make 
things hot. If you don't want to catch the 
small-pox, keep away from it. If you don't 
want to be a drunkard, keep away from whisky. 
If you don't want to raise your sons up to be 
gamblers, keep cards out of your house and 
keep your children out of other houses where 
they have cards. 

Let surrounding circumstances be agreeable 
to vice, and you'll have vice. Let surrounding 
circumstances be agreeable to Christianity, and 
you'll have Christianity. You can't plant corn 
and raise potatoes, and you can't raise much ot 
either if you don't keep them out of bad com- 



8 don't go to hell. 

pany by cultivating them and keeping the weeds 

away. 

I stood in one of the large gambling houses 
ofLeadville. I had just got up from the faro 
table with three hundred and seventy-five dol- 
lars ahead of the game. A young man walked 
up to me and remarked that I was very lucky, 
and said he had never gambled in his life, but 
that he felt tempted to-night to try his luck, as 
he was badly in need of money. He had been 
going to that place every night for over two 
weeks, just as a looker-on, but the temptation 
was never strong enough to make him play un- 
til he saw me win as much as I did, he took five 
dollars out of his pocket in a kind of a nervous 
way and walked over to the faro bank and in- 
vested it in chips, sat down and began playing. 
I felt a little interested so I walked over to see 
how the tenderfoot would play. At first things 
appeared to be running his way, but soon his 
luck changed and he had to go down in his 
pocket for another five. He kept playing until 
he had lost fifty dollars on the layout, then he 
raised up from his chair, reached down in his 
pockets and pulled out four silver dollars, the 
perspiration was standing in great beads on his 
forehead and he was trembling all over with ner- 
vous excitement. He threw the four dollars 
down on the high card open, then pulled a pistol 



don't go to hell. 9 

from his pocket and said : The fifty dollars I 
have just lost was for my poor old widowed 
mother and little fatherless brothers and sisters; 
I went to the express office this evening to send 
it to her but the office was closed, so I had to 
wait until morning ; but now I have lost it and 
she is sick and poor and will starve if she can't get 
help. The four dollars I have on that card is 
the last cent I have on earth, if I loose it I will 
blow out my brains. 

The cold and heartless dealer simply smiled 
as he pulled out the top card, four of clubs was 
up ; chances were in favor of the young man 
who was then standing with the muzzle of the 
pistol against his own temple. I found myself 
growing desperate. I, like many others, knew 
that if anyone attempted to take the pistol away 
from him he would pull the trigger and end his 
life. Just as the dealer was about to pull the 
four of clubs out of the box a happy thought 
struck me. I had three hundred and seventy- 
five dollars in my pocket that I had just won. I 
needed the money but I felt that I could afford 
to loose it to save a son for a mother. *' Hold," 
I cried to the dealer, *'just one minute; if the 
young man looses I will loan him twice the 
amount he was going to send his mother if he 
will promise never to gamble again ; he can pay 
it back if he chooses, when he gets able." 



10 don't go to hell. 

The card was drawn, the two of spades was 
up, the high card had lost. I shoved a hundred 
dollar bill across the table, the young man low- 
ered the pistol and took the bill with tears of 
honest gratitude streaming down both cheeks. 
After taking down my name and address he held 
his hand towards high heaven and swore by all 
he held sacred that he would never enter another 
gambling house or gamble so long as he lived. 
As the young man walked out the dealer looked 
up at me and remarked that I was the biggest 
sucker in the west. Old acquaintances made fun 
of me and said the fellow never intended to kill 
himself and would probably try the same game 
somewhere else in less than a week. But I could 
not help feeling that I had seen the determina- 
tion to die in that young man's eyes. 

Two years had passed and I had almost for- 
got the affair, when I received a draft for two 
hundred dollars and a letter from the young 
man. He said that after leaving the gambling 
house that night he immediately went to his 
boarding house and went to bed with the prayer 
his mother taught him in his early childhood 
ringing in his mind. He got up the next morn- 
ing and sent his mother seventy-five dollars. The 
remaining twenty-five he soon spent in looking 
for something to do. When the last dollar had 
left his pocket he got a position at small wages, 



don't go I'O HELL. 11 

but now he was in a prosperous condition and 
was able to pay me back the money I had loaned 
him. He begged me to take the other hundred 
as a present, if I needed it; if not, to give 
it to some unfortunate, miserable wretch 
^nd let the great good I had done for him be 
doubled. I also received a letter from his old 
mother. When he sent me the money he told 
her the story. Every line and every word of 
her letter was permeated with gratitude. She 
thanked me over and over again for what I had 
done for her boy, the sole dependence of her de- 
clining years. She told me that her son had pro- 
fessed religion and was a good Christian. I was 
urgently invited to visit the family. 

A few months afterward I happened to be 
within fifteen miles of the town they lived in. 
I had the time so I concluded to run over and 
see them. What a picture of domestic comfort 
and happiness I saw, and if I had been a long 
lost son and brother they could not have treated 
me better. The old gray-haired mother told me 
that a day never passed without her praying to 
God for me. Her son has never played a card 
or gambled a cent since that almost fatal night. 
Two weeks visits to the gambling rooms came 
yery near wrecking this now happy and prosper- 
ous family; came very near burying a loving son 
aad surrounding a mother and three little orphan 
children in sorrow and poverty. 



12 don't go to hell. 

I, myself, have never gambled a cent, played" 
at cards, or knowingly entered a place where 
gambling was carried on since I saw that old 
grateful mother and loving children whose hap- 
piness the money I won came near destroying by 
encouraging the son and brother to his first and 
last gambling. 

The circumstances surrounding the young man 
that went to the gambling house just to look on 
were made by himself. He knew right from 
wrong ; he placed himself in a position to be 
tempted and fell almost to the point of commit- 
ting suicide. The night he left that gambling 
house he determined to keep away from all evil 
influences. He is now a Christian gentleman, 
happy and prosperous. 

While surrounding circumstances have a great 
deal to do with people's lives, people have a 
great deal to do with surrounding circumstances. 
The man who will keep out of the reach of 
snakes is not likely to die with snake bites. The 
man that will walk all over rattlesnakes may 
not get bit, but ninety-nine times out of a hun- 
dred he will. It won't do to trust snakes and it 
won't do to trust whisky, and it won't do to trust 
any kind of evil. Let four good boys run with 
one bad boy and nine chances to one, it won't be 
long before the result will be five bad boys, and 
so it is with men. I have heard of one bad 



don't go to hell. 13 

woman wrecking the morals of a whole town. 
She was beautiful, educated, and apparently- 
fitted to be a leader in society, but her heart was 
as black as sin itself. Her home was one of 
fashion; the young girls and boys awarmed 
around her; she was the great social center; no 
social gathering was complete -Without her; the 
ball room and theatre she idolized. Christian 
parents ignored her love for dance and the opera 
and encouraged their daughters in seeking her 
society on account of her polished society ways. 
The commencement of wholesale ruin was in the 
parlors of her fashionable home. Lemonade 
clashed with wine, then wine without the lem- 
onade, then champagne and further on beer and 
whiskey, until innocent girls and careless boys 
had lost reason and become drunk with liquor 
and passion. Virtue lost its price in nightly- 
revelries. Many once pure girls hung their 
heads in shame, thousands of tears were shed by 
many poor mothers and fathers tottering on to- 
wards the grave with broken hearts, looking 
back at drunken sons and fallen daughters. I 
tell you fifteen years of travel from place to place 
and knocking up against the cold sides of this 
world has taught me that but few are able to 
withstand temptation. One snake in the Garden 
of Eden caused the fall of the human race. En- 
tourage one snake in the Eden of home or sur- 



14 don't go to hell. 

roundings and he will pluck the fruit from the 
tree of knowledge and offer it in so many tempt- 
ing ways that innocent girls and noble boys will 
hardly be able to resist, and once down, it's 
mighty hard to get up. Any true Christian is 
ever ready to lend a helping hand to the fallen, 
but there are so many people in the world that 
are not true Christians, and many of them when 
they come across' some fallen wretch will give 
him a kick and send him further on his down- 
ward career. I for one have a greater admira- 
tion for a Salvation Army going along the streets 
shaking tambourines and beating drums and 
reaching down in gutters of iniquity and taking 
by the hand the nameless, the poor and the 
ragged and offering up prayers to God for their 
repentence, than I have for the man or woman 
going by in broadcloth or satin and treating with 
silent contempt the fallen neighbor. Ashamed 
to do good on the streets and only willing to 
work for Christ while standing on Brussels car- 
pet in some fashionable chu-rch and listening to 
the tun© of a ten thousand dollar organ. 

The Jews plead for the crucifixion of our 
Savior, who tramped from place to place, poor 
and travel-stained without a place to lay his 
head. And 1 tell you if Christ would come back 
now and live as he did then, there are plenty of 
fashionable church members that are not Jews^ 



15 

that would repeat the crucifixion if they could, 
but if Christ would return, living in a mansion, 
riding in a carriage and dressed in broadcloth, 
they would grab him by the hand and say how 
do you Christ, I'm glad to meet you. 

There is just as much religion in a base drum 
as a ten thousand dollar organ. It's the way 
you beat it; it's the way you play it. There is 
just as much religion in rags and jeans as broad- 
cloth and satin. God don't care anything about 
your drum or your organ, your rags or your fine 
clothes; it's your earnestness — your soul. The 
fellow that hollers the loudest against the doc- 
tor when he's well, will call the most for the 
doctor when he is sick. There are thousands of 
people that while in good health go on day after 
day, committing sin after sin, careless of the lavvs 
of God, but when they fall in sickness, tortured 
with pain, looking at death staring them in the 
face, they will then think of God and Heaven 
and Hell, and with a loud voice wrung from the 
very heart, of fear, call on the God whom they 
had so often ignored. Bob Ingersoll says ac- 
•cording to the religion of Jesus Christ the 
wicked believer may commit all of the crimes in 
the annals of history, but if between the last 
breath and death he calls on God he goes to 
Heaven, and a good disbeliever that leads an 
iaonest, moral, truthful life simply because he 



16 

donH call on God goes to Hell. In order to show 
you where Ingersoll is wrong, I will quote one of 
his illustrations. He said a farmer that was 
honest and moral and just, but disbelieved the 
Bible, died, and his soul was immediately wafted 
up to the Golden Gates of Heaven. St. Peter 
met it and said, "Where|are you from?'.' ''I'm 
from the earth." "What was your business?'^ 
' 'I was a farmer.'*' *' What kind of a life did you 
lead?" ''I lead an honest and moral life and 
took good care of my family." Did you pay 
your debts?" **Yes, and left enough money be- 
hind to pay my ^funeral expenses." Did you 
believe in the Bible?" "No." '* What, didn't 
believe in the snake story and the rib story and 
the whale and Jonah story?" ^'No." "Didn't 
you call on God before you died?" "No." 
"Send him to Hell." 

Next brother soul from tlie earth appeared be- 
fore St. Peter. "Where are you from?" "I'm 
from the earth." What was your business?" 
"I was cashier in the First National Bank in the 
city of Chicago." "Did you ever steal any- 
thing?" "I don't like to talk about myself."' 
"But you must." "Did you ever steal any- 
thing?" "I run away with two hundred and 
fifty thousand dollars belonging to the bank.'^ 
''Did you take anj^thing else with you?" ''Yes, 
I took my neighbor's wife." "Did you leave 



Don't go to hell. 17 

any money behind to take care of your wife and 
children?" "No, my confidence was so great in 
God I thought he would take care of them." 
<'You believed in the Bible then." '^Oh yes." 
*'Did you believe in the rib story and snake 
story and other miracles of the Bible?" "Yes, 
I believed in all the miracles of the Bible, and 
always wished that there were more, bo that I 
could show God what confidence I had in him." 
'^'Give him a harp; let the band play." 

That is IngersoU's version. Mine is different. 
Ingersol says the honest, moral, truthful, disbe- 
lieving farmer was a good man. I deny it. One 
must be something morejthan honest, moral and 
truthful to be good. One must be obedient. You 
have got a boy. You say, ''Johnnie, here is a 
dime, run over to the store and get me a dime^s 
worth of salt." And Johnnie starts and in half 
■an hour you go out in the yard and find him 
playing marbles. You say, ' 'Johnnie, I told 
you to go and get me some salt; go immedi- 
■ately," and you go back in the house and 
Johnnie goes off with a crowd of boys to play 
baseball. What do you think of that boy? It's 
not mean to play marbles; it's not mean to play 
•baseball, but it's m>ean to disobey the parent, 
and the next time you catch Johnnie you give 
^im a licking for his disobedience. IngersoU's 
i&aroiiier was honest and just, truthful and moral, 



18 don't go to hell. 

but he was disobedient. He refused to obey a 
very important commandment of God, he refused 
to carry the cross of Christ, and for his disobe- 
dience he gets Hell. IngersoU's bank cashier 
believed in the Bible, but while in health cared 
nothing for its teachings, and went on day after 
day piling sin on sin, but finally when he saw 
that he could sin no more, that he had to die, 
between the last breath and death he called on 
God, and Ingersoll sa} s his soul was immediately 
wafted up through the Golden Gates of Heaven 
to hear the band play for ever more. That I 
deny. While the Bible teaches us that the 
elevehth hour is all right, if we do truly repent. 
But do the people that go through life believing 
•in God, and yet refusing to obey his command- 
ments, apparently waiting for the last moment 
to rectify the sins ol an entire lifetime, truly re- 
pent. I say no, not one time ©ut of a hundred. 
After they have committed so many sins and 
finally fall on a bed of disease and see death 
staring them coldly in the face, they look back 
in the dim distance and see the Devil with 
a pitch fork loaded with burning brimstone, and 
they smell the fumes of Hell and get scared. 
They look in front and hear divine music float- 
ing out from the golden harps of Heaven's happy 
Angels, and they want Heaven. There is no 
repentence about it, they simply want Heaven 



^^.^»;^t,' 



19 

and fear Hell. Watch the man that believes in 
God, and yet while in health refuses to obey 
him; watch him going through life cussing and 
lieing and stealing and drinking; watch him 
when he falls on a bed of sickness, and when he 
thinks he is going to die listen to his mournful 
cries to God for help; and after he thinks he is 
going to die, if it should turn out that he was 
mistaken and he gets well, watch him; in two 
months afterwards he'll be nearer than ever. 
The fellow that works for the devil all of his life 
may think he'll get a crown and a harp for hol- 
lering between the last breath and death, ''Oh 
God have mercy on my soul,'' but he'll come 
nearer getting horns and a forked tail. 

I once saw a man die accusing surrounding 
circumstances of sending him to Hell, a scene I 
shall never forget. He was brought up in a 
Christian home; all of the surroundings of his 
youth were calculated to make a noble man and 
after he grew up his star of the future was bril- 
liant with promise. One evening he was going 
to prayer meeting and met an old acquaintance 
that had just returned from the West. The ac- 
quaintance insisted on him going to a saloon and 
taking a drink just for the sake of old times. 
After a good deal of persuasion his resolution 
gave way and he went — went through the door 
of earth's hell and drank damnation at its coun- 



20 DON^T GO TO HELL, 

ter just for the sake of old times, and from tHat 
moment on church and song and prayer lost- 
their charm, surrounding circumstances were 
changed — changed for that man forever. The 
home of his childhood was no longer interesting 
and even the, poor old gray-haired mother who 
had nuTsed him in sickness and humored him in 
health could no longer persuade him to spend 
his evenings at homo with her. His old asso- 
ciates dropped o£f one by one and drunken, tougb 
rowdies of the town took their place, and at last 
whisky took entire po-sses&ion bf his being. A 
robbery was committed, suspicion pointed her 
unfeeling finger at him, and in order to keep 
out of the penitentiary he had to ruoi away from 
the only home in the whole wide world that 
would offer him a cheerful welcome. I met hini 
the first time on the borders of the -F^est, he waS' 
in rag& and almost starving. I took pity on 
him and used my influence to get him a posi- 
tion as a cowboy on a large cattle ranch. He 
led a daring, reckless life, apparently neither 
afraid of man or devil, but at la&t in a drunk e© 
row he was shot jiUst over the heart. He lingered 
several days. I was with him in his dying: 
hours, and he told me of his home,, his old gray- 
haired father and mother, of the bright pros- 
pects of his youth, of the circumstance tha^ 
caused his fall. His father and mother ^ej^& 



vLM 



DON'!^ do -ro SELL. 21 

both dead, they died with broken hearts. In a 
little cabin without the slightest comfort, away 
out on one of the large prairies of the West that 
boy that was raised in luxury, who while in 
youth sipped every comfort from the cup of life^ 
lay on a dirty blanket spread on a ground floor, 
caring nothing for his physical pain although it 
was great. At times he would look back into 
the past with tears of remorse coursing down his 
palid cheeks and blame surrounding circum- 
stances for his sufferings. At last when death 
drew nearer this man that was considered, so 
brave in health, became one of the greatest cow- 
ards I ever saw. It seemed that he was looking 
straight through the open gates of hell; he 
would strain and jerk and roll and scream and 
beg, until death came and opened up an avenue 
of escape for his tortured soul. As I stood with 
tearful eyes and bowed head over the yet warm 
remains of that reckless boy, I thought of all of 
the early opportunities of the good surroundings 
of this youth and how he had ignored them. 1 
thought of the false friend, the first drink. I 
thought of God and the Holy Bible, but on its 
sacred pages I could not remember of ever see- 
ing a single word of hope for that lost soul that 
had sought circumstances to hurry it on to 
eternal doom. 



22 don't go to hell. 



STRAY SHOTS AT THE DEVIL. 



We may travel all of our life in every way 
possible. Over every country of this entire 
globe. We may sleep on the hard rock of pri- 
vation in the house of bitter want and mingle 
with fortune's favorites in the parlors of sumpt- 
uous fashion. During all of our experience we 
will never be able to find in the human race any- 
thing but people. Some are bad and others are 
worse; some are good and others are better; but 
for all of that a Christian is a Christian and a 
sinner is a sinner — the one does not blend into 
the other. We cannot be both at the same time. 
There are many bad church members, but there 
are no bad Christians. There are many good 
sinners, but the best sinner on earth is not near 
so good as a genuine Christian. 

I never saw a man in all of my life whom I 
thought was too mean to have a streak of good- 
ness running through his character. Neither did 
I ever see a man whom I thought was too good 
to have a small spark of meanness somewhere in 
his composition. Although we are mostly dif- 
ferent in many things we are generally alike. 
The same cold that would freeze a Gould would 



ttiii 



don't go to hell. 23 

freeze a pauper and the same fire that would 
warm one would warm the other. 

The aspirations of a millionaire are generally 
different from those of a poor man, and yet if the 
millionaire's stomach was empty he would have 
the same desire for something to eat that the 
poor man has. 

The poor laborer works for bread, while the 
rich millionaire works for railroads. Make the 
poor man rich and he will begin to think about 
railroads. Make the rich man poor and he will 
begin to think about bread. 

Extremes are dangerous, too much heat will 
burn and too much cold will freeze. 

Extreme poverty and extreme wealth often 
prove a curse to mankind. Great wealth stimu- 
lates selfishness and great poverty creates bit- 
terness. While there are exceptions I would 
seek pure unselfish Christianity in that home 
where the wolf of want and the butterfly of fash- 
ion are strangers. 

Poverty is not a blessing for this earth neither 
is riches; the one may be a misfortune the other 
is positively a responsibility. 

Many people admire riches, I don't. I admire 
character. I would just as soon shake hands 
with a pauper as a millionaire. I would just as 
soon see the poorest person in this town go to 
Heaven as the richest. We must remember 
that God is no respecter of persons. 



24 don^t ao a?o sell. 

If some great capitalist would come to tliis 
town and offer to put up a large distillery or 
brewery, one that would employ several hun* 
dred hands, there ate some old gray haired 
money grabbers that belong, to the church that 
would do all in their poWer to gfet the Hell mak" 
ing machine in this place. Some of them would 
be wil]ing to spend a great deal of money before 
they would let the offer fall through. And why? 
I'll tell you. They think their business inter- 
ests would be benefited, or that their property 
would increase in value. 

They are enemies of the Devil until he offers 
them a bribe, and then they become his best 
friends. Some of them have children growing 
Up. Some of them have boys, and they want 
lots of money to leave them When they die. 

A few distilleries and breweries and saloons 
will do the work. Business will boom; they will 
get rich. But While business is booming drunk* 
enness Will boom, crime will boom, and Hell 
will boom. They will get rich while the distil"* 
leries and breweries are puffing and spewing al- 
cohol of damnation for the souls of their boys 
and friends and neighbors. I don't weigh but 
one hundred and twenty pounds, but I'm not 
afraid to tell such church members what they 
are. They are traitors to God and traitors to 
earth. They are traitors to the early teachingsJ 



Hi 



25 

of their devoted Christian mothers. They are 
treacherous, lieing hypocrites. The few paltry 
dollars they give the church they give begrudg- 
ingly, little caring or thinking that it is worth 
more to them and theirs than all of the whisky 
making and Devil-breeding machines on earth 
could ever be. 

If I have fired shot into the camp of the Devil, 
1 have no apology to make. When you shoot at 
a hog, if you don't hit him he is not likely to 
squeal. The caps that I throw out in this au- 
dience are only intended for those that find a 
fit, and whoever finds a fit is perfectly welcome 
to it. 

All of my ammunition is for the devil and 
I'm determined to shoot it in that direction. I 
don't care what kind of clothes he wears, jeans 
or broadcloth, I would just as soon spoil one as 
the other. If I can take any of the polish off of 
a dude's shoes and put it on his heart I'll do it. 
I've got a good recipe for making a dude, I'll 
tell it to you: Take a worm-eaten peg and fill 
the worm hole with the brain of a common 
house fly, glue the peg to a rotten Irish potato, 
use four tooth picks for legs and arms, dress in 
the latest dude- fashion with an exceedingly 
flashy necktie. The result will be a dude of the 
first family. 



26 DoN^T GO 1:0 Hell. 

A dude is a tobacco consuming animal with 
clothes on, useless to every one but the manu* 
facturer of cigarettes. Its life is wasted on the 
street corners and in front of churches as people 
go in and out. 

The dade is indigenous to most countries^and 
places, but flourishes better in large cities. You 
havn't got any dudes in this place. They are im- 
itations and the imitation don't last long, for 
they soon learn that to be a dude we must be 
born one. and to be born a dude is a mistake of 
nature, as a dude's parents are frequently very 
respectable people. 

It is not the kind of clothes you wear that 
makes you a dude, but the way you wear them. 
Wear all of the fine clothes you will, if you can 
afford it, but don't let your clothes come be- 
tween you and God. Don't be stuck up; don't 
think that you are any better in your broad- 
cloth than your neighbor is in his jeans. 

Clothes may make dud^s, but they don't make 
men, men make clothes. Whenever I think 
about a dude I think about the bad room, not 
because all people that dance are dudes, but be- 
cause nearly all dudes dance. 

When I think about the ball room I think 
about Hell. 

I believe that it would be a great surprise to 



don't go to hell. 27 

many church members to know how many peo* 
pie have danced themselves to Hell. 

If the Devil ever had a chance to wreck a 
woman's life and soul he has it in the ballroom. 
Mothers and fathers if you have any regard for 
the purity of your daughters, trust them to a den 
of rattlesnakes rather than in the nicest of the 
unbridled passions of the Devil's whirl. Any 
member of the Methodist or Presbyterian church 
that do dance or encourages it in any way is 
guilty of perjury. 

I would rather wear the stripes of the convict 
that was sent to the penitentiary for perjury 
than to wear the stripes that some church mem- 
bers will have to wear in Hell for the same 
crime, A man with a church membership with- 
out religion is a hypocrite that reminds me of a 
snake — it's hard to tell where the tail ends and 
the body begins* 

People that smile and sing and pray in church 
and frown and fuss and almost fight at home, 
havn't got enough religion to float them a half a 
mile towards Heaven. They are all wind; they 
might do for a blacksmith's bellows? but they 
don't do for a Christian. If you have a home, 
make the best of it. A Christian's home unites 
Earth with Heaven and is the one sacred spot 
where the early teachings of the devoted mother 
opens the heart of infantile innocence and gives 



28 don't go to sell. 

purity a resting place thro\igh the whole of life. 

Early training is the most lasting — good fruit 
trees come from good nurseries. They require 
the training and the grafting, and so it is with 
people. Train them right in their childhood; 
graft the religion of Jesus Christ in their hearts 
as they grow — some of them may sprout hell- 
wards, but the sprouts are easy to trim. They 
are not hard to reclaim and caused to bear the 
most luscious fruits of Christianity. Oh! fathers 
and mothers if you love God and Heaven. If 
you would have your children with you forever, 
make your home what this church is, a House 
of God. Sing there as you do here; pray there 
as you do here. Be as careful about what you 
do and say there as you are here. Childish 
laughter and innocent amusement should not be 
disturbed by frowns and quarrels of parents. 
But be sure that the amusement is innocent, 
not only in your own home but any home that 
your children may desire to visit. 

Guard your children from sin as you would 
guard them from small pox. Shield them from 
every temptation that your experience has 
taught you to be dangerous. Hundreds of boys 
are on the road to Hell and the carelessness of 
their parents is frequently the cause of it. 

Hundreds of girls are leading a life of shame, 
because their parents gave the Devil every op- 
portunity to ruin them. 



don't go to hell. 29 

Did I say Devil? Yes, and I repeat it. Devil. 
Hellish Devil would sound better, for that man 
that would wreck the life and soul of innocent, 
confiding womanhood, is a traitor to his race, 
reeking with the vermin of Hell, more to be 
feared than the rattlesnake, and deserves to be 
shot down like a mad dog in the streets. The 
murderer pays the penalty of his crime on the 
gallows, while his victim sleeps peacefully in 
the grave. But the murderer of a woman's pur- 
ity is often petted by society, while his victim 
suffers and festers in the filth of prostitution. 
Next to God, I love my wife and children. I 
have a little girl hardly three years old. Oh! 
what a treasure is my little sweetheart baby 
girl; I often get a glimpse of Heaven in her 
dancing eyes. Her childish laughter sounds to 
me like the music of angels. I look on her as a 
gift from Heaven. I feel that I love her as 
much as God ever permits a man to love his 
child. Were it not for my love of Christ and 
faith in God, her death would be to me a heart- 
twisting sorrow beyond my endurance, and yet 
I would see her dead and buried ten thousa,nds 
of times before I would have her grow up and 
fall in the lustful arms of prostitution, and I be- 
lieve every father and mother in this house will 
endorse my sentiments. 

Mothers, how many sleepless nights have you 



30 don't go to hell. 

spent over the sick cradle of your children? 
How many silent tears have you shed over their 
sorrows? How much have you worked and 
suffered and sacrificed for their sake? How 
great is your ambition for tneir happiness? Do 
you wish to see them disgraced for earth and 
ruined for Hell? No, no, no! Intones of thun- 
der, no! Every pulsation of your heart throws 
your real life's blood against the phonograph of 
your mind and thrills your entire being with the 
one word, no! To see the darlings of your heart 
in the fermenting vat of iniquity would cause 
you to shed bloody tears of almost unconsolable 
sorrow, and yet some of you have children that 
are standing on the very brink of destruction , 
and you sit with folded arm^s and sleeping en- 
ergy, while your child prepares for the fatal 
leap. There is a mighty wreck close at hand;, 
the safe bridge of Christianity is torn away; the 
train of life is hurr3diig on faster and faster^ 
nearer and nearer. Vfake up, you sleepy par- 
ents; hurry with the danger signal; wave your 
flag high in the air if you would save your chil-- 
dren from a wild and reckless plunge into the 
muddy river of sin and Hell. 

Make your homes as pure and pleasing as- 
possible, turn every quarrel into a prayer. Pray 
for your children — with your children. Try to 
keep them out of bad company. Rem/embezr 



idon't go to hell. 31 

birds of a feather flock together. Keep your 
children away from the buzzards of crime, if you 
don't want them to eat of the rotton carcass of 
sin. 

Stand bravely under the cross of Christ, if you 
would have pure homes and good children. 
Never let an opportunity to do good slip into the 
past unnoticed. The bullets that you shoot the 
Devil with must be made out of the religion of 
Jesus Christ, they are the only kind that will 
kill sin. Keep your gun loaded and whenever 
and wherever the Devil shows himself shoot 
Keep him out of your home even if he wears 
broadcloth or satin. 

If you teach your children right ninety-nine 
times out of a hundred they will teach their 
■children right. Oh, that every father and every 
mother would plant the flowers of Christianity 
in their hom'^ and cultivate them through the 
whole of life. How sweet would be the per- 
fumes of consolation, and how joyous would be 
the meeting in the end of time on the golden 
streets of musical Heaven. Father and mother^ 
daughter and son, grandchildren and great 
grandchildren, all with God and together for- 
ever and forever, beyond the trials and cares and 
sorrows of earth, in the home sweet home of 
Heaven, built on the rock of eternal ages. There 
*3very heart will throb with pleasure, every smile 



82 don't go to hell. 

will grow into happy laughter, which will go 
flashing on against the chords of eternity and 
cause them to vibrate into divine symphonies 
that will thrill the heart of every angel with 
perpetual joy. 



A TEMPERANCE TALK. 



The most profitable business of the Devil is 
the saloon. Alcohol is God's worst enemy and 
the Devil's best friend. The most of the crimes 
of civilization are turned through the faucets of 
the whisky barrel. The saloons are seeds of 
sin from which grow saplings and trees of crime, 
that are eventually washed into the furnaces of 
Hell by the briney tears of poverty, oppressed 
widows and orphans. Through the microscope 
of truth we can see in every glass of strong 
drink the heart of the Devil that ofttimes gives 
strength to the arm of the midnight murderer to 
plunge a blade of steel into the heart of his 
sleeping victim. More tears of sorrow have 
been shed over the drunken carcass of alcohol 
than the world could count in an entire lifetime. 



Don'i? go to hell. 33 

Behind the screen of ever}^ saloon there is a 
den of hissing, writhing snakes that are contin- 
ually striking their sharp fangs in the flesh of 
innocence and poisoning it with vice. 

As we. float down the river of life we see on 
the right hand churches and godliness, cleanli- 
ness and prosperity, and we see on the left sa- 
loons and drunkenness and filth and misery and 
poverty. 

He that buys whisky buys his own misery and 
the misery of those that love him, and he that 
sells it snatches bread and meat from the 
mouths of defenseless women and helpless chil- 
dren. Better far sell rough on rats and arsenic 
for they only poison the body and do the work 
quick, while whisky gives a liEgering life of 
misery and poisons the soul for the eternal tor- 
ments of Hell, 

He that casts his vote in favor of whisky is a 
traitor to his friends and an enemy to his own 
children. It is the duty of every Christian 
father and mother and son and daughter to deal 
with whisky as they would with a poisonous 
enake. Crush ii wherever you see it, it is al- 
ways coiled and ready to strike. 

If a mad dog was running through this town, 
men would run for their guns. If ten thousand 
mad dogs were running and biting as they went, 
they could not do as much harm as ono salooE. 



o4 do^'t go to hell. 

One soul in Hell will suffer more in a year than 
this whole place could suffer from bites from all 
of the mad dogs that ever lived. If the church 
members of this town would put their hearts and 
heads together and fight whisky with the same 
force that they would mad dogs they would soon 
blot every saloon from the map of this place. 

Oh, says old bald-headed hypocrite, I would 
vote against whisky, but then you see, my friend 
runs a saloon and, besides, I am in the mercan- 
tile business, and if the sale of liquor w^as pro- 
hibited here it would hurt my business. People 
would go to some other town to trade. You are 
but another Judas selling Jesus Christ for a few 
pieces of silver. While you are thinking of your 
friend that deals in liquor you are forgetting 
your children and your other friends and their 
children. You are . not with our Savior, who 
said: "He that is not with me is against me." 
You are one of the DeviPs agents pushing your 
ow^n children down the road to destruction. 

Says Mr. Dram Drinker, I can't see any harm 
in an occasional drink, just so a man don't make 
a hog of himself. Therefore, although I am a 
church member, I vote for it. Yes, you are a 
church mem})er, and that is all — you are cer- 
tainly not a Christian. You know that there are 
hundreds of people that do make hogs of them- 
selves, and that every town in every state where 



don't go to hell. 35 

liqiioi' is sold look on drunkenness as a nuisance. 
Although the town will;issue license for the 
whisky seller it will also issue warrants for the 
whisky drinker. 

The Indians of this country are treated as 
wards of the government and the traffic of intox- 
icating liquors is positively prohibited among 
the nations of the Indian Territory; and yet this 
self same government sells its permission for 
liquor to be sold in the states. If it is a crime 
to murder in California it is a crime to murder 
in Kentucky. If it is a crime to sell whisky in 
the Indian Territory it is a crime to sell it in 
the States, and should be punished in all places 
alike. It is not only the drunkards that suffer, 
but thousands of wives and children are com- 
pelled to receive curses and bruises from hus- 
band and father instead of bread and meat, and 
it is not only the saloon keeper that is responsi- 
ble for this state of affairs, every man that casts 
his' vote in favor of whisky or lails to cast his 
vote and influence against it, is on the side of 
whisky and is helping the Devil to starve women 
and children. Those that are with whisky are 
heaping stones of sorrow on the back of poverty 
and crowding the poor house and prisons of the 
country with victims of vice that grew from 
seeds of purity. 

This country is full of rags and dirt and mis- 



36 don't go to hell. 

ery in the very midst of plenty, and absolute 
prohibition is the only thing that will dry up the 
tears of poverty and wash and clothe its dirt- 
polluted body. 

If you desire to do a deed of charity work with 
all of your might and main against the vile 
fiends of Hell, and every mother and wife and 
child that are the innocent victims of drunken* 
ness will wipe the tears of sorrow from the eyea 
of love and thank you a thousand times from the 
very depths of their overjoyed hearts. Work 
and pray to God to crown your work with suc- 
cess, and you will see good clothes take the place 
of rags; you will see the waters of prohibition 
wash the dirt from the tear-stained face of pov" 
erty; you will hear songs of praise to God in that 
house where you now hear oaths and screams of 
anguish » Although I hate alcohol and its evils, 
I do not hate the saloon keeper and his patrons^ 
I pity the barkeeper and the drunkard from the 
very bottom of my heart. I love all men; they 
are my brothers, and if they fall in the slimy 
pool of iniquity I am ever ready with all of my 
strength to help them up. Oh I how my heart 
aches to see my brothers in life sell their souls- 
for gold or sell their mother''s comfort and wive& 
and children's happiness and their own souls for 
strong drink. 

Mothers and. wives and sisters D,nd sweet-^ 



Mk 



Don't GO HO iIejll. ^1 

laeafts, for God's sake and your sake, I plead 
with yon with tears of emotion flowing from a 
pain swelling heart. Pray and work as you 
never prayed and worked before. Yes, pray and 
work and persuade in church and on the streets 
and in your homes, for Christ's sake and your 
father's sake and your brother and husband and 
sweetheart's sake and your own sake. Pray and 
work and cry and plead for the death of the 
burning curse of mankind. Your happiness is 
at stake, the happiness of those you love is in 
danger. Pure, noble women, you are the angels 
of earth. Your influence is great; -your sweet 
Christian care and your gentle loving^ words be^ 
gin with us at the cradle— let them last to the 
grave. Good Christians are often made at home 
by the early teachings of the loving mother, the 
noble attributes of man were cultivated by the 
lips of the mother while he laid in her lap smil- 
ing and cooing in infantile innocence. Woman^ 
man is indebted to you for his early training, 
and unless whisky has completely drowned his 
self-respect and turned him into a brute, he will 
listen to your tearful entreaties and determine 
to become a respectable human. Without youi' 
aid the ship of Prohibition is lost. You by na*- 
ture know the way to man's heart; reach it, and 
God will reform your drunken father, husband^ 
Son or sweetheart. Work, work, work I so that 



38 , don't go to hell. 

the pest will become a hideous nightmare on the 
tablets of memory, so that in the near future 
there may be a glorious rally over the festering 
carcass of dead alcohol. Let your prayers to God 
be long and strong and full of tears, so that in 
the future they may be full of the smiles of 
thanksgiving. You can't vote, but in the end 
one prayer is worth more than a hundred votes. 
Not since the morning stars first sang together 
and the sons of God laughed for joy has noble 
woman had more influence than now. And if 
you will only use it with the force of undying 
determination, all that sell and drink will fall 
at the feet of Christ and beg God for forgiveness. 
If we could only wean the drunken calves that 
suck their crimes from the breasts of 'alcohol, 
there would be a smile for every tear, a joy for 
every sorrow, a prayer for every oath and a song 
to God for every bruise. The Devil would cover 
his face with shame and slink back into the 
darkest corners of Hell. Earth w^ould be ^m 
Eden before the fall of Adam and the reign of 
Christ would be absolute. Oh! friends, for the 
sake of your dear old sacrificing, gray-haired 
mothers, for the sake of your loving wives and 
sistei^s and daughters, turn your hearts to Christ 
and here and now renounce intoxicating drinks 
in all of its Devil-tempting forms. When you 
look at it you look at ruin; cold, desolate ruin.. 



don't go to hell. 39 

What man in this house is so weak as to be un- 
able to lea,ve the side of ruin? Who will prove 
his determination and set an example for Christ's 
sake? Who will here in public show his desire 
to fight the liquor traffic by standing up? 



HYPOCRISY., 



The lights of Christianity are burning and 
blazing and growing all over this entire globe. 
The world is becoming greater and grander and 
better; every sermon in every Christian pulpit, 
and every prayer in every home is driving law- 
lessness and crime back farther and farther. 
Atheist and Infidel, Agnostic and Heathen are 
joining the Holy Pilgrimage for good and for- 
ever. The Gods of Idolatry are decaying and 
crumbling under the pressure of Christianity; 
churches are being built where saloons and 
gambling houses and dens of prostitution once 
stood, but in the midst of growing good and dy- 
ing evil we occasionally see the poisonous fangs 
of hypocrisy reeking with the blood of many 
victims. We see this deceitful creature in the 
home spun rags of poverty and the finest silken 



40 DON^f GO I'O liELL. 

fabrics of wealth, with the face of an angel and a 
tongue of the Devil. It flaunts itself into our 
presence while on the streets or in our homes* 
It even dares to take the Holy Sacrament in the 
House of God. Woe unto he or she that wears 
the mask of religion for the sake of earthly 
prosperity. Woe unto that man who will give 
fifty dollars in public to convert heathens in 
Asia, and will refuse to give five cents in private 
to feed starving widows and orphans in America. 
Woe unto that woman that would make the 
House of God a social institution, who in the 
silks and satins of riches will snub her nose at 
the rags of poverty; and on bended knees, while 
her lips are ostensibly moving in prayer, will 
envy her neighbor the bonnet she wears, and say 
to herself I'll have one that will beat that next 
Sunday. 

Many heathens wear the cloak of religion. In 
Asia they worship the golden calfi In America 
they worship the golden dollar. Many pray to 
God in public and worship mammon in private^ 
and of all the heathens they are the worst. If 
I had words in my vocabulary that would sound 
like the hiss of a snake or the snarl of the hyena 
or the grinding of the jaws of the crocodile, I 
could better express the contempt I have foi 
hypocrisy. As I loathe hypocrisy I pity the 
hypocrite. Had I words of sorrow that would 



41 

sound like the dull thud of clods falling on the 
coffin lid of death I would be more able to ex- 
press my feelings for those that feed on the bit- 
ter plains of deceit. The rattlesnake will shake 
his rattlers and give you warning of your dan- 
ger, but the hypocrite will take you on surprise. 
In the rosiest peach we ofttimes find a worm. 
I on'ce heard of an old negro that went out in 
the woods to get a piece of timber out of which 
he intended to make his wife a bread tray. He 
selected the straightest and apparently best tree 
in the forest, but while cutting it down he dis- 
covered it to be hollow. That is what is the 
matter with some of you church members, you 
are al] right on the outside, but your hearts are 
hollow, the disease of deceit has rotted out the 
core. Deceitful Judas betrayed Christ with a 
kiss — the most deadly poison is frequently as 
eweet as honey. Is the poisonous honey of 
Christ's betrayer on your lips? Do you carry 
the hvpocrisy-permeated heart of Judas in your 
breast? Are you a wolf in sheep's clothing, 
seeking the flesh and blood of mutilated inno- 
cence? A traitor to God, a traitor to earth, a 
traitor to yourself. Hypocrisy is born of the 
womb of envy and selfishness, and is a bridle in 
the hands of the Devil, that drives thousands of 
souls to Hell. The curse of God made the 
snake the common enemy of mankind from the 



42 l)0Jf^a? ao ^d QfiLt. 

very beginning of creation, and yet should 1 
meet one in the road by the side of foul-mouthed 
hypocrisy I would place more confidence in the 
snake than I would the hypocrite. 

How often do we see the trap of hypocrisy 
baited with the tempting bread of deceit, luring 
game of innocence into hell dens of vice. How 
often have I heard this man or that woman say, 
I would try to become a Christian, but what is 
the use, I'd jast a^ soon be a professed sinner as 
to be like old Mr. Skin Flintj he'll go to church 
and pray all day Sunda}^ and then go home and 
study the whole of next week every way and 
every means by which he may swindle poor 
widows and orphans out of their inheritance. 
How often have [ heard it said that fashionable 
Mrs. Society belongs to the church, and will 
throw up her hands y/ith holy horror at the mere 
thought of going to a circus or theatre, and will 
blush with indignation at the bare mention of 
tights, but still this fashionable Mrs* Society 
will go to the seashore and put on tights and 
swim around for fun. I tell you I've got more 
respect for the woman that wears tights under a 
canvas on a trapeze bar for a living than I have 
for the church member that wears them on the 
seashore for fun. 

Some preacher goes wrong and the Devilclapg 
his hands with hellish glee, and every sinner 



DoJs^'t go to hell. 43 

begins to cast slurs at the church, as though the 
church was responsible for the sins of man. I 
will acimit that a mean preacher is the meanest 
thing on earth. However, if every preacher and 
every member of every church was swimming in 
the filthy blood of crime that would be no proof 
against the doctrines of Cliristianity — the holy 
word of God. Every house stands on its own 
foundation. Every man is responsible to God 
for his own acts. Let the teacliings of Christ be 
your guide and not the frailties of mankind^ 
Do not laugh and gloat over the sins of others, 
for by so doing you are kindling the fires of hell 
for yourself* rather let tears of sorrow flow from 
a heart of pity. Fall on your knees and beg God 
to pour the Divine oil of His mercy into their 
sin-rushing hearts and cause them, to beat and 
throb with penitence. We should strive to make 
the holy w^ord of God our guide through the 
whole of life. Our conscience is ofttimes very 
treacherous. Conscience is in fact a creation of 
education and will not do to trust. I remember 
when I was a small boy I had a grand and noble 
Christian mother. The little infantile prayer 
she taught hie, ''Now lay me down to sleep, I 
pray Thee, oh Lord, my soul to keep," will not 
be erased from the tablet-s of my memory as long 
as I breathe the air of life. The first oath that I 
ever swore caused my conscience to ache and 



44 don't go to hej^l. 

bleed with pain, the second did not hurt quite 
so bad and the third was still less troublesome. 
Finally I could swear all day long without being 
troubled at all. Crime will soon harden and 
callous the most tender conscience. The first sin 
creates a blister, the second lets the water out, 
the third hardens it and so on until a hardened 
corn of sin protrudes from the once tender foot 
of innocent conscience. And I lell you such 
corns are like any other corns, extremely hard 
to cui^e, but there is a remedy that is certain to 
give relief and will sooner or later give a per- 
manent cure to the most obstinate case. It was 
patented in Heaven and its trade mark is prayer. 
Use it freely and the skin of your conscience will 
become as soft as down and as tender as the rosy 
cheeks of healthy infancy. The hardest nut I 
ever cracked contained a small, but extremely 
sweet kernel. If the meanest old reprobate in 
this house would take the hammer of prayer 
and crack open that old hardened hickory nut 
that beats in his breast which he calls heart he 
would find a sweet kernel of goodness that would 
grow and permeate his whole being with the re- 
ligion of Jesus Christ. Small seed grow into 
little saplings and little saplings grow into large 
trees. Short prayers grow into longer ones and 
long prayers grow into good Christian men and 
women. My sinning friend I am not preaching 



don't go to hell. 45 

to wound your feelings — far from that. I do 
not hate the man that has the consumption, I 
liate the consumption; I do not ha,te the sinner, 
I hate his sins. I love you, I pity you. I care 
not who you are nor where j^ou are from, this 
world is my country and every human being in 
every land is my kindred, We all have the 
blood of old Grandfather Adam flowing in our 
veins. Nothing causes my heart to swell with 
greater sorrow than the death of a lost sinner. 
Nothing permeates my entire being with greater 
joy than the conversion of a sinner into a lamb 
of God. I am standing on the seashore of safety 
and I see a huge ship loaded with human freight 
in the midst of the winds and storms of sin. All 
of the passengers of that ship are my brothers 
and sisters. Oh, God! how my mind is racked 
and tortured. I see the huge rocks of death 
protruding through the storm-lashed waves of 
life. Not a man aboard of that ship seems to 
know how" to steer into the bay of safety. I 
know the right course. ' No wonder I preach and 
cry and beg and pray; my sinning brothers and 
sisters are aboard of that ship. Oh! I can see it 
now as it strikes the dark rocks of death. See 
it bend, hear it crack. Brother, sister, jump in 
the lifeboat of Christ's love, or all is lost. Strug- 
gling and dying and sinking into the fathomless 
depths of Hell will be the history of all that re- 



46 DON^T GO TO HELL. 

main. Oh, my sinner friends steer your sbip 
into the bay of Christ and all will be saved. 
Saved from Hell; saved for God and Heaven and 
eternity. 



A TALK. 



Ofttimes man is educated to believe that which 
is untrue. Generally his religious belief is en- 
grafted into his mind when a mere child, and 
even if wrong if he proves his faith in his reli- 
gion by his works, God will give him his reward. 

I would rather be a heathen on my knees 
groveLng in the mud and mire in the hot, sultry 
climate of India, worshiping a dried snake and 
proving my belief in that snake by my works, 
than to be a member of the best church of Chris- 
tendom trying to roll into glory on the car of 
faith without the engine of good works to push 
me. Because you are a member of a certain 
church and go to that church every Sunday, is 
no proof that you are a Christian. To act a 
Christian while in church and then go home and 
fuss about this thing, or that thing, or speak dis- 
respectfully of the dress that Mrs. So and So 
woye, may fool some people^ but in the great 



iH 



don't go to hell. 47 

day of judgment you will find that God was not 
so easy fooled. Some people have got more re- 
ligioQ in their clothes than the}^ have in their 
hearts. When they put on their Sunday-go-to- 
meeting clothes, they put on a long, pious look 
with them and become apparent Christians for 
one day, but as soon as they take off their 
clothes and hang them up on a nail, they hang 
all of the religion they ever had up with them. 
,1 don't care how much faith you have in Jesus 
Christ, if you don't prove your faith by obeying 
his commandments you are a lost sinner, and to 
obey the commandments of our Lord should not 
be a task but a pleasure. To carr}^ the cross of 
Christ is the best job you ever had, and in the 
final day of judgment you will receive your 
wages in the legal tender of God's mercy, which 
will be worth more than all of the wealth of the 
Vanderbilts and the Goulds and the Astor^ 
and the entire Globe. 

I've heard some church members say it is 
mighty hard to be a Christian with all of the 
trials and cares they had. Poor, deluded, miser- 
■able sinners complaining of the cross of Christ, 
and claiming to be one of God's <ihosen, in their 
efforts to deceive God, they deceive themselves. 
They mistake ceremony for Christianity. 

Show me a genuine Christian (none of your 
i-OAg, owl-faced hypocrites) and I will show yon 



48 don't go to hell. 

a truly happy man or woman. Sinners never 
know what genuine happiness is; when they are 
too good to commit great crimes, little ones hurt 
their conscience; and when they are hardened 
criminals fear of the law, penitentiary and gal- 
lows keep them miserable. 

Extract all of the vanity and prejudice and 
party spirit from the religion of some church 
members, and they would not have enough 
Christianity left to fill the skull of a mosquito. 

The cross that Christ carried is not the cross 
that you will have to carry, Christ clothed in 
the flesh of man, feeling, hearing, smellingj 
tasting and seeing as man suffered more for us 
than our mind is capable of understanding. Ch «ist 
struggling and fainting under the weight of a 
wooden cross, bleeding and dying for the sal- 
vation of mankind, is a picture that we have all 
been accustomed to look at with reverence from 
the cradle up. 

The nails driven in the feet and hands, the 
sword thrust in the side, were but one drop of 
sorrow in the bucket of Christ's life. It was his 
mind that was tore and hacked and cut. It was 
not the red life's blood flowing from his physi- 
cal wounds that gave him so much anguish. It 
was the blood of compassion flowing from the 
wounds of His Godly mind, produced by the^ 
nails and swords of sin. 



don't go to hell. 49 

The Jews crucified Christ and every sinner of 
every land have been carrying on the bloody 
butchery through many ages of the past until 
the present. Every sin we commit we drive a 
nail in the cross of Christ, and sinners if you 
don't watch out it will be so full of nails from 
your driving that you will not have time to pull 
them out before the cold, clammy hand of death 
wi;l close your eyelids in perpetual earthly 
sleep, and your soul is hurled into the bottom- 
less pits of eternal sorrow. God does not only 
require that we should be good, hut that we 
should do good. Do good wherever and when- 
ever an opportunity presents itself, arid if op- 
portunities don't come to you, go to them. 
Make all of the prayers you can in public, and 
make ten in private for every one you make in 
public, but never ask God to do something for 
you that you are able, but unwilling, to do for 
yourself. 

Some people are too lazy to work; and they 
are always begging God for something to eat. 
You see such people in every church. They 
appear solemn, and are always talking about 
what good Christians they are. They are lazy 
and hungry and do more harm in the church 
than they would out of it. If they would go to 
work and fill their stomach and smile and laugh 
a little they would perhaps become happy Chris- 
tians. 



50 

Don't let any unchristian act be your guide; 
don't say Mr. or Mrs. So and So belong to the 
church and do certain little things that are 
wrong, and I guess I will do them too. If you 
want to be a good Christian do what you think a 
good Christian ought to do. Don't think that 
because others sin it gives you a license to sin — 
every tub stands on its own bottom— if it has 
got any. Every man is responsible for his own 
sins, if he has got any mind, and if he hasn't he 
is all right, for he will get an idiot's passport to 
Heaven. Heaven, Heaven! What a sweet 
word, sweeter than all of the words framed with 
the letters of sAl of the alphabets of all of the 
languages of this entire globe, and oh, so full of 
joyful meaning. Home, sweet home, a home of 
rest; a home of comfort; a home of joy; a home 
with God; si home where we will meet our father 
and our sweet, dear old mother. There her 
Bweet face will not be tear-stained and pale and 
wrinkled, but will be blooming with the red 
roses of eternal health and happiness. The 
waters of the divine love of Jesus Christ will 
wash out all remembrance of sorrow. And oh, 
what a grand jubilee we will have when we meet 
our loved ones on the Golden Streets of God's 
home and your home and my home. We will 
not have a jubilee of one day, but forever and 
forever. Old gray-haired mothers and old bald- 



don't go to hell. 51 

headed fathers, don't think so much about your 
children's future on earth; think more of their 
future in eternity. You have toiled and suffered 
and economized all through your married life; 
and for what? For money — money to leave your 
children when you die — and it is likely to do 
them more harm than good. Children raised on 
a gulden spoon, often die with a brass one in 
their mouth. Raise your children well and then 
let them make their own spoons, and ninety-nine 
times out of a hundred they will be better than 
any that you can give. Feed them on the milk 
of Christianity and they will grow up to noble 
manhood and womanhood. A Christian's deed 
to a home in Heaven is worth more to you and 
your children than all you will ever be able to 
make or see on earth. 

Mothers, do you remember when your little 
dancing-eyed, sunny-haired child was sick — al- 
most dying? Oh! how you > watched and nursed 
and prayed, and when the doctor said there was 
no hope, your heart throbbed and pained so 
that even the tears of sorrow could not flow, and 
when all earthly hope was gone God answered 
your prayers and performed a miracle even as 
Christ performed while in the flesh. The hot 
and parching fever vanished and your little dar- 
ling grew back into health. That child is per- 
haps grown now: grown and on the road to ruin 



52 don't go to hell. 

and yo\i seem contented. Your child was saved 
for this world. Well in the body, but sick and 
dying in the mind, the spirit, the soul. Now is 
the time to sorrow an J pray. Oh, God! I beg 
of Thee as I never begged before. Give, oh 
give me thoughts and words that will flash like 
powder when touched by fire. Yes, flash and 
burn into the hearts and souls of every Christian 
father and every Christian mother in this house. 
Flash and burn into energy and zeal and cause 
them to go to work in dead earnest, work and 
struggle and pray for their children and friends 
and neighbors, for many of them are sick and 
dying. 

Yes, my friends, many of you are sick and dy- 
ing; and your burning, torturing, agonizing dis- 
ease is sin, cold, heartless, contagious sin, worse 
than small pox and cholera and yellow fever, 
for they only open the avenues of the soul and 
allow it to pass into the eternal future. 

Sin is a slimy, crawling, treacherous snake 
that works and hisses in us and out of us and 
around us, until we are contorted and twisted 
and poisoned in both mind and body and turned 
into fuel for Hell. 

The wages of sin are so great that it is aston- 
ishing to me that every sinner in every land do 
not fall on their knees and beg God for mercy 
and forgiveness. 



don't go to hell. 53 

Oh, my sinning friend! lost, lost, lost! is 
written with big, bloody letters of sin across 
your name, but the letters are noi indelible. You, 
by the help of Christ, can erase them. Christ 
lived to save you, Christ died to save you, Christ 
is, and has, and will, ever be ready to extend 
you a helping hand. For Christ's sake, for your 
good, old mother's sake, for your father's sake — 
for the sake of all that you love, throw yourself 
at the feet of Christ, repent of your sins and beg 
God for mercy. God is merciful. Heaven is 
full of mercy. Open your heart to God and 
Christ will fill it with the wine of love from the 
fountain of mercy. 

Oh! that the heart-wringing word of lost would 
be blotted here and now, so that saved might be 
written in its place. 

Saved for father, saved for mother, saved for 
earth, saved for Heaven, saved for eternity, 
saved for God. 



64 

THE HOLY BIBLE. 



This is the Holy Bible, the book of books from 
God through man to man, a history of the be- 
ginning, a prophesy of the end — a record of war 
and famine and pestilence and flood. A cham- 
pion of truth and love and justice and mercy, a 
fulfillment of prophecy, printed in every lan- 
guage, taught in every country. Go where you 
will over North and South America, Europe, 
Asia, Africa and Australia, and almost every in- 
habited island of every ocean and sea and lake 
and river. You will find this most precious of 
all books unchangeable and indesructibly printed 
with the indelible ink of God's mercy — bathed 
in the blood of Jesus Clirist, made holy by all 
of the pains and aches and sorrows of martyr- 
dom. When a storm-tossed, wave-washed ship 
bends, breaks and sinks under the mighty fury 
of the elements, the sailor boy that in the midst 
of cries and curses and prayers holds close to his 
heart the Bible his dying mother gave him long 
ago, may go down to the bottom of the mighty 
deep with the rest, but his mother, an angel in 
Heaven, will look on — not wdth sorrow — but 
with joy, for her darling boy will be saved — not 



don't go to ttllLL. 55 

for earth, but for God and her and Heaven. 

When the misfortunes of earth come to us 
furious, thick and fast, if we open this sacred 
book and read we will be comforted. It is per- 
meated with hope and peace and promise. If 
our mind is weak we will find simplicity on 
every page; if our mind is strong we will find 
depth in every chapter. This is a book of law 
from the very fountain of law. Read, believe 
and obey if you would be happy on earth and in 
eternity. There are perhaps in this book many 
things that we do not understand, and yet those 
things that are essential to our salvation are 
very plain. Voltair's have ridiculed, Tom 
Paine's have reasoned and IngersolPs have lec- 
tured. The atheist, infidel and deist have 
laughed at the miracles herein recorded. Poor 
finite minds laughing at the mysteries of God, 
incapable of understanding the great mystery of 
life and death, unable to understand the mira* 
cles that occur every day. Such as the growth 
of a small seed into a large ttreej unable to un- 
derstand the law of like producing like; unable 
to explain the control of mind over matter; try- 
ing to steal from the human race all hope and 
all consolation and all harm, and giving noth- 
ing in return but cold, silent, perpetual death. 
Give the reins of your belief into the hands of 
the atheist and he will drive you to death, de- 



56 

struction and Hell. Make the Holy Bible your 
guide, and it will lead you to the green pastures 
and floral gardens of endless joy. Destroy this 
book and you will destroy every Christian 
church in every land, and erase from the mind 
of every devoted child the early teachings of the 
loving mother. Civilization ^ould fall back 
into heathenism and barbarity. Morality and 
justice would bleed and die in the clutches of 
vice. Hell for earth, Hell forever. The purity 
of the marriage tie, home comfort and fireside 
are built on the sacred truths of this Holy book. 
Take it away and you tear the foundation from 
the house of all that is good and it will crumble, 
totter and fall into the slimy quagmires of sin, 
Shakspeare is a great book, and yet if anotlier 
were born, to the world every year for ten thous- 
and of years, and the next would always be bet- 
ter than the last; the whole would not be 
worth as much to the world as one line of this 
Holy word of God. Every promise in this book 
is from the creator of all things and every prom- 
ise will be fulfilled. Without the Bible every 
pleasure has its sorrow; within the Bible everj'' 
sorrow has its pleasure. Judge the tree by its 
fruit — the seed of the thorns brings forth thorns. 
Viciousness sprouts from the roots of vice. It 
is in the saloons and gambling dens and filthy 
places of prostituted iniquity where the seeds of 



Don't go to sell. 57 

crime are first planted. With this book in this 
church or any other church, in the home of every 
Christian father and every Christian mother, 
the seeds of Jtruth and love and virtue are sown 
and cultivated, and they grow in the sunshine of 
God's mercy and bring forth G.od-loving, Devil- 
hating, noble men and women. 

Your homes and your property, your mother 
and your sister and your wife are protected by 
the law, and law does not come from the law- 
less, it comes from the good and just. All 
goodness and all justice are taught by the sacred 
chapters of this Holy book. Civilization was 
built up by its teachings, and would fade, fam- 
ish and die without it. Show me a home with 
the Bible'where Christian father and mother and 
sister and brother read and pray together, and 
I'll show you a home of love and sympathy and 
forbearance beautified with the sunshine of hap- 
piness and Godliness. A home without the 
Bible may cost ever so much furnished in the 
most elaborate style, and yet in that home you 
will find the hydra-headed monster of deceit and 
selfishness. In sickness and death you will see 
the cross-bones and eyeless skull of buried hope. 
For that home there is no happiness beyond 
death. There you will find butterflies of vanity 
drinking poisons of Hell from the golden cup of 
arrogant wealth. The time is sure to come when 



68 don't go to hell. 

beauty will fade and misery will wear the crown 
— wealth will vanish and the pauper despair 
will carry the scepter. For you that believe 
and obe}^ the time is sure to come when every 
sorrow will be wrung from your Christ-loving^ 
God-worshiping souls, and they will go on ab- 
sorbing the endless pleasures of Heaven through 
all eternit3^ For you that disbelieve or disobey 
there are no words in the English language with 
sufficient horror to describe the aches and pains 
of your tortured souls in the fathomless ocean of 
dark, burning, blistering, shrieking Hell. 

Hell is not made of real fire and brimstone, it 
is worse. Heaven is not made of real gold and 
diamonds, it is better. There are many roads 
leading to Hell. They go from every saloon 
and gambling house and dance hall and race 
track. They all start from the birthplace of sin. 
Many start in the costly carriage of riches, but 
end as paupers, begging whisky on the way. 
The earthly beginning of most roads to Hell are 
clear and bright. Tempting flowers of deceit 
bud and blossom on either side. The further 
you go the darker things grow. Your associates 
become more open and bold in crime; every 
flower of happiness soon fades away and your 
body aches and bleeds from the thorns of dissi- 
pation and vice. 

A sinner and a pauper's grave is oh! so often 



don't go to hell. 59 

of giving away to the first temptation. The 
earthly road to Heaven ends as it starts full of 
promise, bright and clear. On either side are 
the sweet roses of charity laden with the per- 
fumes of brotherly love. No thorns of despair 
but full of the heliotropes of devotion and hope, 
budding and blooming into more beauty every 
mile you travel. A Christian's death is the end 
of sorrow; a sinner's death is the end of happi- 
ness. Oh, my sinning friends, read, believe 
and obey this most Holy Book. If you would 
eat of the bread of eternal life (your sins are gar- 
ments of filth, breeding vermin for Hell) ';throw 
yourself at the feet of Chridt and beg God for the 
divine ointment of forgiveness — wiish your sin- 
ful hearts in the waters of penitence. Christ is 
ready, Christ is willing, Christ is here. Come, 
every Christian in this house will help you pray. 
Every angel in Heaven will rejoice at your com- 
ing. Moses and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob 
will sing praises to God. Come, all that is good 
on Heaven and earth will laugh for joy at your 
coming. The demons of sin may hiss and snarl 
in the darkest corners of Hell, but come. The 
Devil wants you for flame and fire and smoke; 
Christ wants you for music and joy and Heaven. 



60 



CHRISTIANITY. 



Christianity is all music and love and laughter 
and joy, permeated with everything that is good 
and grand and noble. In sickness and sorrow 
and death it gives comfort and hope. It is the 
salt of life, the water of civilization. It builds 
churches and reforms drunkards and gamblers 
and thieves and murderers. It drowns vice and 
makes the men good and the good better. It is 
the rudder that guides us from earth to Heaven, 
and without it we are ships of discontent, float- 
ing on the bitter waters of sin, without sail, 
without sj^ream, without rudder, without Christ. 
Blown on and on by the winds and storms of bad 
to worse, and at last wrecked against the dark 
rocks of death, and left to struggle in the fiery 
ocean of Hell. 

Brothers and sisters do not mistake a long 
face and hard, cold expression for religion, 
Christianity does not dry up the fountains of 
happiness, it is heartless, reckless sin that will 
do that. Cold, haughty, owl-faced church mem- 
bers have not got religion, they have dyspepsia 
or a liver trouble. If you want to cry, cry, 
don't belie your nature, don't play the hypo- 



don't go to hell. 61 

crite. God gave you eyes to see and ears to hear 
and muscles to draw your lips back into laugh- 
ter. Use them in a pure way wherever and 
whenever you please. When you are looking at 
me preach, if you see anything that makes you 
feel like laughing, laugh. If you want to sleep, 
sleep, but please don't snore, the person next to 
you might want to sleep too. You see I want 
every one to be comfortable. If what I say don't 
interest you and you want to get out, get up and 
go out, don't sit squirming in your seat. If 
people would be just as careful about what they 
do and say on the streets and at home and every 
where else as they are while at church, there 
would be but a little room for the Devil to work 
in. ''Let your light so shine before men that 
they may see your good works and glorify your 
Father which is in Heaven." Let your spirit 
shine in church and out of church; here, there 
and everywhere. Pin your faith on Jesus Christ 
and do his commandments, not only on Sunday, 
but every day in the week and every week in 
the month and every month in the year and 
every year in a lifetime. Have but one face and 
let it be a Christian's face. Have but one side 
to your character and let that side be good. If 
you are called on to make what you deem a sac- 
rifice for God, make it. You will find it to be 
the best investment you ever made. God will 



62 

pay you with the gold of Heaven, dollar for dol- 
lar, with the biggest interest you ever heard of, 
and compound interest at that. The national 
l)ank of Heaven is the bank to do business with,. 
God is its president, Christ is its cashier, and 
every angel in Heaven are its directors. It is 
loaded with the golden coin of God's mercy and 
Christ is ever ready to cash the checks of all. 
One square inch of Heaven is worth a millior^ 
times more than every square mile of earth. 

Men may live and men may die; nations may 
rise, totter and fall; war and famine and pesti- 
lence may sweep over the face of this earth, 
with the force of an endless tornado, yet the 
Bank of Heaven will stand — stand through all 
the years and centuries and eternity. No ab- 
sconding cashier; no depreciation in stock. It 
is full of gold — ^it is made of gold. Every street 
leading to its doors are paved with gold. Not 
the gold, of California and Australia, but the 
gold of Christ*s undying love — the gold of eter- 
nal salvation. 

You that love riches, throw yourself on the 
bosom of Christ. Pray to God for the riches of 
Heaven and he will make you richer than all of 
the emperors and kings and millionaires of 
earth. 

The richest man in this world out of Christ is 
poorer than the poorest in Christ. What you 



don't go to hell. 6S 

have in your possession on this earth, you have 
borrowed, and when you die, you will have to 
pay it back. 

If you have much, much is expected of you. 
The widow's mite is as great in the sight of God 
as the rich man's thousands. Never fear to in- 
vest your money, time or sympathy for Christ. 
Every investment you make for God is recorded 
in your favor. 

When a snake raises its head to bite you will 
be sure to try to get out of the way, but when 
the Devil comes with his lying, tempting, forked 
tongue, many of you will allow him to insert his 
poisonous fangs into your very soul. More care 
for the body than the soul; more care for this 
world than the next. I tell you one minute in 
Heaven is worth more than a whole year on 
«arth. One second in Hell is worse than all of 
the pains and sorrows of an entire lifetime. The 
road to Hell is a road of sin, and every mile is 
worse and worse and worse. The farther you 
travel the more weak and miserable you become. 
Death and fire and Hell is at the last station and 
you may not be ten minutes from that station. 
This may be your last and only chance to get on 
the palace car of Glory and ride on the safe road 
to Heaven. On this road every car is built of 
the timbers of promise; every rail and every tie, 
every screw and every nail are fastened in per- 



64 don't go to hell. 

feet place by the love of Christ. Every station 
is lit up with the brilliant lights of hop'e. The 
end is Heaven, and Heaven is eternal. 

Which will you have, God and Heaven, or 
the Devil and Hell? Make your choice. Eter- 
nal happiness or everlasting misery; which will 
you have? Christ is the conductor for the good, 
the Devil is the conductor for the bad. Both 
trains are here — one goes up and the other goes 
down. Everything that is great and grand and 
good points to the train of Christ. Everything 
that is mean and low and vicious points to the 
train of the Devil.' Sinners regain your self re- 
spect, wipe the tears from the wrinkled face of 
your dear old mother; restore happiness to the 
sorrowing heart of your sacrificing father. Make 
your friends and neighbors think more of you. 
Let the Devil go to Hell without you. Take the 
train of Christ. It is here, ready and waiting. 
Christ with outstretched hands and voice full of 
compassion, preaching to a sinful world, was 
working for the salvation of every living sinner. 
Christ suffered on the cross of Calvary so that 
you might be saved. Christ was there; the 
spirit of Christ is here. It. is in the heart of 
every Christian in this house. It is knocking 
at the door of every sinful heart in this church. 

Oh, my sinning friends, open the door of 
your sinful- hearts and let the Devil out and 



don't go to hell. 65 

Christ in. Throw away the bitter and rotton 
fruits of sin, and take from the overloaded bas- 
ket of Christ's love the sweet, rich, luscious 
fruits of Christianity. What if your every 
earthly ambition was gratified, riches and health 
and earthly pleasures must have an end. Cold 
and silent death will come sooner or later. Life 
is but a moment hanging in all eternity. The 
Devil will weight your soul dowi:i to burning, 
shrieking Hell. Christ will raise it up to ever- 
lasting, glorious Heaven. Little Christians and 
big Christians; little sinners and big sinners; sa- 
loon keepers and gamblers and murderers and 
thieves. Christ wants all. The Devil wants 
all. Christ came to redeem and save the lost. 
I don't care how big a sinner you are, nor how 
big a sinner you feel yourself to be. I don't care 
how poor you are, nor how bad your clothes are, 
Christ is not afraid of poverty, he is not looking 
for good clothes; it is your heart; your soul that 
he is after. High and low, rich and poor, one 
soul is worth as much as another in the scales of 
God. 

Death levels our body to an equal on earth, 
Christianity levels our souls to an equal in 
Heaven, and sin levels them to an equal in Hell. 
Every Christian father and every Christian 
mother, every Christian sister and every Chris- 
tian brother, every Christian friend and every 



t)6 DON^T GO TO HELL. 

Christian neighbor, has a heart-burning, sou^- 
longing wish for the salvation of all of you sor- 
rowing sinners. Because your pursuit is sin 
and sin means Hell, we do not dislike you; be- 
cause you are a saloon keeper or gambler we do 
not hate you. We hate your sins and pity you. 
You have our sympathy. In the very midst of 
your sins you often do many things that are 
grand and noble. Your hearts would be good if 
you would only let them. How often have I 
seen a poor, starving beggar go with empty 
hands from the palatial home of some aristo- 
cratic church member to the hell house of a sa- 
loon keeper and extend his hand for aid. How 
often have I seen that saloon keeper, actuated 
by sympathy, reach down in his pocket and give 
to suffering poverty. Deeds of charity are not 
from the Devil. Many of you are too good to 
be what you are. You have been stung by the 
bee of sin. Eat the honey of Christian consola- 
tion and you will become brilliant lights of the 
church and society. Let me paint you a picture. 
:?everal years ago a large tenement house in the 
city of New York was burning down. The 
burning building was seven stories high. Away 
up in the attic were two little children looking 
out of the window crying for some one to save 
them. Thousands of people were congregated 
in front of the burning building. The firemen 



67 

iiad placed a huge extension ladder up against 
the house. The flames were bulging out of the 
windows; the walls were almost caving in. Not 
a man in that whole, vast concourse of people 
dared ascend the rungs of that ladder. The 
mother of those poor children was coming home 
from her hard days work, and as she got on the 
outskirts of the crowd almost breathlessly she 
looked up and saw the danger of the blue-eyed 
darlings of her heart. She tried to force herself 
through the almost solid mass of pitying human 
beings. She tore her hair in frantic agony and 
cried and screamed for some one to save her 
children. Not a man stired, not a man moved. 
Yes, one, a poor, hard working carpenter with a 
wife and little ones at home, felt his heart beat 
and roar with sympathy, and with almost, su- 
perhuman strength he forced himself through 
the crowd, and in defiance of fire and flame and 
smoke, he ascended the ladder rung after rung. 
The walls might cave, the fire might burn, the 
flames might roar, he was determined to save 
those children. When he got to the top he took 
them in his arms, and as he was coming down, 
he tore his own ragged coat from his body to 
shield them from the fire, and placed his own 
hody between them and the flames. When he 
-got to the bottom he was dying, and his last 
words were, **thank God they are aaved. '* Hun- 



^^ don't go to hell. 

dreds of years ago the great tenement house of 
this world was burning with sin, and every God- 
loving mother was crying tears of blood for their 
children to be saved. A poor carpenter by the 
name of Jesus arose from the waters of the Jor- 
dan in the arms of John the Baptist, and as- 
cended the rungs of the ladder of sorrow and 
took from the very top of the burning tenement 
house of sin all that would be saved. The fires 
of hatred burned and blackened and blistered 
his body with sorrow. Yet he worked on and 
on, with love and compassion for the salvation 
of mankind, worked and suffered, suffered and 
worked. Now as then his arms are ready and 
willing. Throw yourself on his bosom and he 
will carry you to a place of safety. 



don't go to hell. 69 



I REMEMBERED GOD AND WAS 
TROUBLED. 



The 77tli chapter of the book of Psalms, first 
six words of third verse: ''I remembered God 
and was troubled.'' 

In the light of the living and the dark of the 
dying sinner the words of my text are often 
echoed against the walls of conscience. I remem- 
bered God and was troubled. All God-believing 
people often in the remembrance of God become 
troubled over their sins; were this not so the 
church of Christ would be for rent. If you com- 
mit a sin and think of God your conscience will 
surely trouble you, if you have any, and if you 
haven't got any conscience I surely pity you, for 
yours is a bad case indeed. Some people get 
all of their religion from the dining table and 
carry it in their stomach. I know a man that 
belongs to the church; when his stomach is full 
he reminds me of an angel, but when it is empty 
he reminds me of the Devil. When our religion 
comes from within instead of without, we are 



70 don't go to hell. 

safely anchored on the waters of salvation, but 
when it requires full stomachs or pleasant sur- 
roundings to make us good, we are like feathers 
in the storm, blown hither and thither, and only- 
stop when the wind stops. Did you ever see a 
great, overgrown bull dog of a husband come 
home pitching things here and there, and fuss- 
ing at everybody and everything. Simply be- 
cause his sweet, little, troubled-loaded wife 
didn't have dinner ready just on time; and when 
dinner was ready did you ever watch the old 
glutton sit down and eat like an old bear, care- 
less of the comfort and pleasure of others? Well 
I have, and after his old craving stomach was 
packed as tight as sardines in a can, his frowns 
would vanish into smiles, and then the children 
would begin to laugh and play, even the poor, 
meek. Christian wife would dare to throw her 
arms around the old brute's neck and kiss him. 
The whole house would seem lit up with fear- 
less joy. What a transformaiion, and all made 
out of cabbage and pork and turnips. There 
are just such men in the church and they are 
always ready to thank God for his bountiful 
mercies when their old hides are stuffed with 
the good things of this earth, but when they are 
hungry they don't think of God or anybody or 
anything but something to eat. Such people 
are not Christians, they are heathens; their stom- 



don't go to hell. 71 

ach is their idol and if they have any conscience 
it can be found in their digestive organs. If 
such people ever get to Heaven they will have 
to die with a full stomach, for that is the only 
time they are ever half way decent. How many 
of you husbands treat your wives as servants 
when they are often your equal, and more often 
your superior. Many of you make beggars of 
your wives. If they want to spend a little 
money, or visit a neighbor, you expect them to 
ask you. When you go home you carry frowns 
but expect your wife's face to be wreathed in 
smiles. After you eat your supper your days 
work is over and you sit brooding over your bus- 
iness troubles, as cross as an old bear, while 
your wife washes the dishes and puts the chil- 
dren to bed and darns Johnnie's stockings and 
patches Mary's dress and sews a button on your 
coat. Then you begin to talk about the work 
you have to do and how tired you are, never 
once thinking about the trials and cares and 
work of your poor wife. Don't you know that 
your wife has more cares and troubles in one 
day than you have in a whole week. When 
Sunday comes you rest and there is a frequent 
lull in your week days work, but when Sunda}'' 
comes to your wife there are many things that 
can not be left undone; the children must be 
cared for, and you expect to have everything 



72 don't go to hell. 

just so. I tell you there is not a man in this 
town that would swap places with his wife for 
one week, and yet some of you are always find- 
ing fault. I don't care if you have belonged to 
the church all of your life, you have got a heart 
of stone. I once received a present from a friend. 
It came by express in a nice, large box and was 
labeled in big, black letters, ^'apples.'' Now 
apples was just what I wanted. I was very 
eager to open that box, and when I got the 
hatchet and opened the box I found the apples, 
but they were all rotton. That is just the way 
with some of you church members. You are 
labeled with the word Christian in big, flaring 
letters. You are all right on the outside, but 
when the box is opened the apples are rotton. 

So many people wait for all of the idols of 
their life to crumble before they remember God, 
then they are troubled indeed. There are many 
heathens in this country, both in and out of the 
church. Mr. Glutton worships his stomach. 
When he gets dyspepsia so bad he can't eat he'll 
remember God and be troubled in two ways, 
then perhaps he'll become a Christian. Mr. 
Miser worships gold. I can spell his God with 
the letters of dollar. He says to himself I wear 
the face of a Christian now, but when I get rich 
I'll wear the heart of a Christian. Watch out, 
when you remember God it may be too late. 



don't go to hell. 73 

Mies Vanity worshiprt fine clothes and fine hats 
and fine jewelry. She thinks more of the treas- 
ures of this earth than she does of the treasures 
of Heaven. Watch out, or you will get up some 
morning and find that the moths and rust have 
destroyed all of your Gods, and you will have 
nothing but the flames of Hell to clothe you. 
Mr. Fault-finder you are permitted to find fault 
with your wife and every one else now, but if 
you do not remember God in time your future 
fault-finding will have to be with the Devil in 
Hell. I like fine clothes and fine jewelry and 
fine carriages and fine houses, and fine every- 
thing else, but I like God better. God permits 
us to use the good things of earth — some of the 
richest kings were the favorites of God — but to 
be a Christian God must be first. Abraham 
loved his son Isaac, loved him perhaps as much 
as a father ever loved a son, yet he was willing 
to sacrifice that son to God. 

God made the boundless canvas of the uni- 
verse and pinned every star and sun and moon 
in its place. God gave to man the breath of life 
and all that he receives and enjoys belongs to 
God. We are but beggars in the great poor 
house of earth. All of our necessities and com- 
forts and luxuries are wheeled to us on the gol- 
den chariot of God's mercy. He that loves and 
worships the things of earth more than God is a 



74 DON^T GO TO HELL. 

traitor to the fountain that quenches his thirst, 
and surely deserves the wrath of God. 

Oh! guilty, sinful man, burn all of your idols 
in the furnace of the past and remember God and 
be troubled. Make God first- Let the things of 
earth be last for the sake of Christ and your own 
eternal salvation. Throw aside the gold and 
guild of vanity: do away with the hatred and 
fault-finding and sham of worldliness. Remem- 
ber God at the feet of Christ with a heart run- 
ning over with tears of repentence. Remember 
God in-the name of Jesus, so that you may re- 
ceive a crown of peace from the New Jerusalem 
of God's mercy and Christ's love. Yes, a crown 
ofjfeaceon earth and endless joy in Heaven. 
There is no death for your soul; it must live for- 
ever, in Heaven or in Hell. It is but a few steps 
from'the cradle to the grave. Your body will 
soon crumble back to earth; your love and pride 
and anger and hatred for things of earth will die 
with your body; your bonnets and silks and sat- 
ins and jewelry and carriages and houses will be 
of no use to your soul. After the night of death 
is the splendors of Heaven in the day of eter- 
nity that will make the soul happy or the hor- 
rors of Hell that will make it miserable. Who 
would give a fortune for a penny, and yet there 
are thousands of people that would swap eter- 
nal happiness for a few moments of worldly 



don't go to hell. 75 

pleasure. There are tiiose that would give 
Heaven itself for one night in the ball room; 
that would live in Hell forever before they would 
bend their proud knees before Christ and beg 
God for forgiveness. Poor, weak, vain peacocks 
standing on the back of earth, can not you un- 
derstand that it is the very silken and golden 
feathers you wear ©n your backs that fattens you 
for the slaughter house of hell. Oh, sinners, has 
the passions of your body so blackened the win- 
dows of your soul that the light of God and 
Heaven does not shine into your heart? Can 
you see nothing but death at the end of life? Do 
you.see no star of hope beyond the grave? Have 
you lost all memory of the cares and sorrows 
and teachings and prayers of your poor old sac- 
rificing Christian mother? Is there no power in 
her hot tears of sorrow to quench the flames 
of your sins ? Do you want the earthly part of 
your sweet old mother to be eternal ? Have you 
no desire to hold her hand in the presence of 
God on the golden shores of Heaven ? Is your 
heart hardened against remorse and dead to pity? 
Oh, God! I pray Thee open the eyes of every 
sinner in this house, draw back the curtain^ of 
the past and show them Jesus standing in the 
judgment of Pilate ; let them see the hideous 
face of the Devil that holds the lash ; let them 
see the force and lury of the whip with its leaden 



76 don't go to hell. 

pellets of unbearable pain, and as Jesus is 
whipped and tortured and fainting let them see 
the blood of Christ running froni the stripes and 
and bruises of the cruel whip and if there is still 
no pity in their worldly hardened hearts, show 
them the crown of pricking thorns dyed with 
blood ; carry them to Calvary and let them see 
great nails driven by the hand of ferocious 
cruelty in the quivering flesh of Christ, and as 
Jesus hangs on a cross between earth and 
Heaven, bleeding and dying, perhaps their 
worldly-hardened hearts will be softened by the 
touch of pity, and when Jesus cries in his dying 
agony, ^'Father in thy hands I commend my 
spirit," remorse may take possession of their 
souls and as they look up into the compassionate 
face of our dying Savior they may throw them- 
selves at the foot of the cross and beg for for- 
giveness. 



don't go to hell. 77 



SERMON. 



The revelation of St. John, 20th chapter 15th 
verse: ''And whosoever was not found written 
in the book of life was cast into the lake of 
fire." 

Did you ever go to a great furnace and see ton 
after ton of metal and rock and coal all fanned to 
a white heat, and as the melted metal was run 
off into great ladles ready for the moulds, did 
you think how horrible it would be to see one 
of your best friends fall over into so much awful 
heat? In one moment that friend would be ren- 
dered into smoke and ashes. A cry, a shriek 
and perhaps a few bubbles and all would be over, 
but oh, the horrors of that one moment, we can 
only partly imagine. The great despair that 
would go rushing through the brain of our 
doomed friend before his body was completely 
swallowed in the lake of fire. Not even a bone, 
or tooth or hair would be left to show the awful 
death. But there is one thing that would be 
left, and that is the soul — no fire could destroy 
it. It might burn and squirm and shriek and 
suffer for thousands of years; the fires might 



78 DON^T GO TO HELL. 

grow hotter and hotter and the agony of every 
moment might become worse and worse and yet 
there would be no destruction for the soul; it 
will live forever. Beyond the darkness of death 
are the brilliant lights of Heaven or the awful 
gloom of Hell, and every soul must wing it& 
way to one or the other. Before I became a 
Christian, I had my doubts about Hell, but that 
was because I had my doubts about God and 
Christ and the Holy Bible. I knew if there was 
a Hell I would surely roast on the grid irons of 
eternity if I continued on my sinful -way and I 
therefore tried to reason myself up to the belief 
that the horrors of Hell lived only in the imag- 
ination of the fanatic. In studying the Bible I 
am not led to believe that God created Hell to 
scare people into Heaven. On the contrary he 
made Heil to hold the wicked from the good and 
to punish people for their sins. I can not un- 
derstand how any man in his right mind that 
believes in the Bible can doubt the existence of 
Hell. As sure as there is a Heaven there is a 
Hell. The words of my text prove it, and every 
living person out of Christ is standing on the 
very edge of the great crater of death, and the 
force of the next moment may push them over 
into the boiling, burning, hissing volcano of eter- 
nal Hell. Parent, if you was standing at the 
foot of a great mountain and saw your little child 



79 

away up on top in its infantile ignorance lean- 
ing over the edge of a great hole looking away- 
down into the very bowels of the earth at a white, 
hot lake of melted rock and lead and iron and 
dirt, and listening to the awful roar of the min- 
eral waves as they dashed with unbridled fury 
against the rocky ribs of that burning volcano. 
Would you quietly fold your arms and with 
tearless eyes and happy heart look away up to 
your sweet little darling and smile at its awful 
danger. No, mothers, no! No, fathers, no; a 
thousand times no! Your whole being would 
be changed into breathless, frenzied agony. No 
goat ever climbed the Rockies as you would 
climb that mountain; there would be no rocks 
too large for you to pass; no place too steep for 
you to climb. You might be several miles ofif, 
and every mile would seem like a thousand, yet 
you would run on and on; thorns might stick 
and scratch and tear, rocks might bruise and cut 
and as you ran, tired and bleeding, you would 
find no time for rest until you had snatched your 
darling from the burning jaws of death and car- 
ried it to a place of safety. Christians, all of you 
have a child or father or mother or sister or 
brother or friend that is at this very moment 
standing on the dangerous mountain of sin, mov- 
ing in their blindness around the crater of eter- 
nal punishment apparently waiting for the 



80 don't go to hell. 

breath of death to blow them into the fiery lake 
of Hell. All of the ship wrecks and train 
wrecks of earth are not one thousandth part as 
frightful as one soul wreck. All of the pains of 
every living thing of earth that has lived and do 
live and will live, can not be near so great as the 
endless pains of a lost soul; for it must suffer 
forever and forever. You can not save your 
child, relative or friend, but you can pray and 
advise and plead until their sin-hardened hearts 
are softened for Chris t to enter and take posses- 
sion of their souls and help them in safety until 
death frees thera for Heaven. There is in India 
a cave that is literally alive with squirming, 
poisonous reptiles. No. man has ever entered 
that cave to return. A few years ago a young 
Englishman determined to explore it in defiance 
of all entreaty of his friends. One bright morn- 
ing he, with several others, went nearly to the 
mouth of the cave, and as he entered his friends 
stood on the outside and looked, and before he 
got out of sight the poisonous cobras began to 
strike with all of their hissing fury. He turned 
to run, but like a flash of lightning, in a mo- 
ment's time he was almost completely enveloped 
in a living ball of maddened, writhing, hissing 
snakes. He fell and rolled and shrieked in 
agony until death brought him relief. Is there 
a person in this house that would dare to enter 



81 

that cave? I believe not. And yet, unless your 
name is written in the book of life, you are go- 
ing directly towards the lake of fire that burns 
in eternal Hell, and it is worse than all of the 
snake bites and deaths of earth. The young 
man that tried to explore India's snakey cave 
was governed by his own stubborn will, and it 
carried him to a horrible death. You that are 
on the road to Hell are following your own 
choice. God made the waters and the land and 
those that care for life do not jump in the water 
to drown, but prefer to stay on the dry land for 
safety. If this house was burning down would 
any of you remain to be bathed in the burning 
flames of death, or would you get up and out as 
quick as possible. Oh, sinner, can you not un- 
derstand that it would be far better for you to 
have your body burned and blackened and blis- 
tered with the fires of earth than to have your 
soul contorted and charred and twisted with the 
fires of Hell. If you love life prepare for ever- 
lasting life. If you love happiness throw your- 
self in the arms of Christ and beg God for the 
eternal happiness of Heaven. If you dislike 
pain and sorrow, flee from the pain and sorrow 
of ceaseless Hell. Knock and it shall be opened 
unto you. Remember that you must first become 
a lamb of Christ before your name is written in 
the book of life. The best sinner on earth is 



82 

not sheltered with the glorious promise of sal- 
vation, When I was a sinner I often said to 
myself I am as good as Mr. So and So; he be- 
longs to the church and does many things that I 
would not do, and if we both should die I'll get 
to Heaven as quick as he will. I feel tonight 
that I was right; my chances was as good as his, 
but both of us would have gone to Hell. But it 
w^as because neither of us loved Christ. All of 
the morality and churches on earth can't save 
our souls; it is Christ that does that. What do 
you think of a man that would for years and 
years do everything in his power to gain your 
friendship and confidence and, finally, when he 
discovered that you had your pockets full of 
money would lure you off to some secluded spot 
to rob and murder you? You will undoubtedly 
say such a man deserved to be hung — burnt. No 
death would be too horrible. Sinner, the Devil 
is treating you this way every day in hundreds 
of different ways. He pretends to be your friend 
and is ever waiting for the seclusion of death to 
murder your eternal happiness and rob j^ou of 
your soul. As you judge the murderous traitor 
to yourself, you judge yourself, for by not trust- 
ing in Christ you are a traitor to God, and by 
your example you are helping the Devil to mur- 
der the eternal happiness of your best friends. I 
once saw an old gray-haired, sinful father bend- 



don't go to hell. 83 

ing with tearful eyes over the dying form of a 
sinful son, and if pity ever took possession of 
my soul it did when I heard that son say in 
his dying agony, ''Father, you have led me 
to hell," that poor old gray-haired sinner trem- 
bled like a tree in a whirlwind; great tears of 
unconsolable sorrow ran down his wrinkled 
cheeks and with one loud shriek of agony he fell 
fainting on the dying form of his lost son. But 
let us with a liand of pity draw a curtain over 
the dying and fainting sinners and quietly enter 
the loving home of Christian parents and silently 
listen to the dying words of a Christian child: 
''Goodby, mama ! goodby papa ! You taught me 
right. I am going to Heaven ; do not cry, do 
not sorrow, you will soon meet me there. When 
you die I will come with Jesus hand in hand and 
guide you to our eternal home," and as the soul 
silently leaves the delicate form of that Chris- 
tian child, we feel that it hovers around its 
loving parents and gently impresses their hearts 
with consolation, and as they on bended knees 
thank God that their darling is saved. We can 
almost hear the rustling wings of God's angels 
of mercy as they soar aloft to the heavenly city 
of eternal joy. Oh, sinner ! there is a Heaven 
and Hell — the Holy Bible speaks of both, and 
God has implanted in the heart of every heathen 
an inborn fear of eternal punishment and hope 
of eternal joy. 



84 don't go to hell. 

There are enough crowns left in Heaven for 
every person who will live; there is also enough 
room in Hell to hold the soul of every sinner 
that will die. Jesus Christ suffered, bled and 
died on the Cross of Calvary so that you might 
wear one of Heaven's crowns and if you will 
shoulder the cross of Christ the crown for you in 
Heaven will give a refreshing shade of consola- 
tion to air of your earthly sorrows, and when the 
trials and cares of earth find an end in death the 
ministering angels of God's mercy will guide you 
beyond the vale of tears, and Jesus, standing on 
the endless shores of time, with a sweet smile, 
will crown you with eternal happiness. 



don't go to hell. 85 



SERMON. 



Epistles of Paul, the Apostle, to the Romans, 
10th Chapter, 13th verse : "For whosoever 
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be 
saved." 

The bloodhounds of hell may snap and bark 
and bite; the cauldrons of damnation may boil 
and hiss and bubble; demons of crime may laugh 
and jeer and steal and murder, yet this sacred 
promise to mankind will stand without alteration 
until the great end of all that is earthy. This is 
a broad promise covering- every nation and every 
land. The sin-dyed criminal in his cell awaiting 
his awful doom at the gallows, feeling and know- 
ing that there is no pity in the laws of man, can 
take refuge under the roof of this gracious 
promise; every living thing on earth may desert 
us, disease may blow his hot, fever-parching 
breath against us: misfortune may fall like a 
mighty hailstorm on and around us, still we have 
the heart-soothing lines of our text from the 
Creator of all things to comfort us. 

Throw the bitter, worm-eaten apple of sin into 
the silent gulf of the past and call on God 



86 don't GO TO HELL. 

through Jesus Christ for rescue. Call on him 
with tears of penitence gushing from a sin-har- 
dened heart. The Devil may gnash his teeth 
with malignant defiance and all Hell may per- 
suade and curse and fret and fume, still the gate 
of salvation will be opened unto you Christ 
lived and suffered; Christ suffered and died for 
every sinner's sake; for your sake and for my 
sake. No star shines as bright as the star of 
Christ's love. There is no road as smoothe and 
plain and straight and free from rocks and thorns 
as the road to Heaven. So many sinners seem 
to fear the laws of man more than the laws of 
God; seem to strive for the gathering sham of 
worldly happiness moxe than the eternal joy of 
everlasting Heaven. How often do we hear 
young Mr. Reckless say, I would shoot that 
horse if it wasn't for the law. How often do we 
hear Mr. Money-lover say, I know how to make 
a fortune in a few months if it wasn't for the 
penitentiary, or Mr. Murderer say, I'd kill that 
man if it wasn't for the gallows. It would be 
far better for you to fear the law of God, the 
gallows of death and the penitentiary of Hell. 
There are many that do not commit crime 
against the laws of the land simply because they 
fear those laws. Know you that if you foster 
crime in your heart that it is just as mean in the 
eyes of God as if you had already committed it. 



don't go to hell. 87 

There are even church members that will give 
permission to their children to do wrong, and 
try to persuade themselves that they are Chris- 
tians. I tell you, you had just as well try to 
cure hunger by rubbinaj your stomach on the 
outside with a beefsteak as to try to get to 
Heaven by merely being a church member. God 
gave no one the permission to sanction evil, and 
those that do are as guilty in the eyes of God 
as the one that does the evil. Before I was 
converted it seemed to me that the hardest thing 
on earth was to be a Christian. Now it seems 
to me that the hardest thing on earth is to be a 
sinner. When the snow of sorrow falls there is 
no roof of comfort to shelter a sinner from the 
chilly blast; no comfort in prayer: no hope in 
death. When we are weighed down with mis- 
fortune, and the knife of sorrow cuts great bleed- 
ing, torturing gashes in our lives if we dare not 
turn to God, the architect and ruler of all, for 
relief, where then is comfort? We have many 
physicians and much drugs for the body, but all 
frequently fail. For the soul we have but one 
doctor and he is God. Use the medicine of 
prayer as he has prescribed it and the words of 
my text will be fulfilled — you will be saved. 
You are in a burning building; fire and flame 
and smoke seems to have cut off every avenue of 
escape. Suffocating, burning, blistering death 



88 

stares you boldly in the face. Oh, how misera- 
ble you must be. Brave firemen are working on 
the outside and doing all they can to save you. 
The fire engine is puffing and blowing and 
throwing water, but in defiance of all, y©ur 
doom seems sealed. At last you think of death 
and God; you fall on your knees and pray as you 
never prayed before, and in the very midst of 
your prayers the brave firemen snatch you from 
the fiery jaws of death. Oh, what a happy mo- 
ment lor you that you feel like a new being. 
You have been born again. The sun shines 
brighter than, it ever did before; the grass is 
greener and all nature seems to rejoice with you. 
I tell you the home for earthly happiness is in 
the houseHold of God. I am a Methodist, but 
the Methodist church never saved me; it was the 
blood of Jesus Christ that did that. I was a 
Christian before I became a church member. I 
joined the Methodist church because it is more 
agreeable to my views, and I thought gave me a 
better chance to do good. However, I am not 
working for the Methodist church I am working 
for God. My advice is to every sinner, repent 
and be saved, then join any church you please. 
There is entirely too much wrangle among 
church members; there is no time for useless ar- 
gument, the great object of all is salvation. 
Stick to that object and you will be all right. 



don't go to hell. 89 

Church prejudice is the greatest guilt. Some 
church members will have to answer for it in 
the final day of judgment, and I tell you if you 
don't watch out it will weight your soul down to 
Hell. Mrs. Goodbody and r. Neversin belong 
to different churches, and they never meet with- 
out running down each other's church. Both 
imagine themselves awful good Christians. I 
tell you I had rather quarrel over the icy corpse 
of my dearest friend than quarrel over the reli- 
gion of Jesus Christ. If you are guilty of ridi- 
culing other churches than your own pray to 
God for forgiveness and never be guilty of the 
same sin again. Give every one the same rights 
that you would have yourself-. Every Christian 
church is a spoke in the wheel of life running 
into the great hub of salvation. So let us work 
together for each other and for the salvation of 
mankind. If our neighbor goes wrong do not 
kick him down, but gently and kindly strive to 
l-aise him up. The cruel treatment of the world 
ofttimes makes drunkards and criminals of those 
that would have been good Christians if some 
one had sympathized and prayed with them. A 
man goes wrong; society turns him out, and oft- 
times the church frowns upon him, and he tries to 
drown his sorrow in drink. Drowning sorrow 
with whisky reminds me of pouring coal oil on 
a dog's back and setting a match to it for killing 



90 don't go to hell. 

fleas. It will kill the fleas every time but it is 
mighty hard on the dog- Whisky may kill your 
sorrow for a little while, but it is mighty hard 
on your constitution and your soul. 

If you have any sorrows you want to drown 
take them to Christ and God will fill your soul 
with the wine of joy. There are those who will 
try to push and pull you down the road of sin, 
but if you will call upon the name of tho Lord, 
He will save you, and there are hundreds of 
good Christian men and women that will ever be 
ready to give you a helping hand along the road 
to Christ. The good child tries to please its 
parents; and wiaen it meets with encouragement 
how its little heart throbs with pleasure. Try 
to please your Father which is in Heaven and 
He will give you encouragement in a thousand 
different ways, and your heart will throb with 
heavenly pleasure beyond the power of words to 
express. I speak from experience. The hap- 
piest moments of my life are those I devote to 
God. My sinning friends, on your side of the 
river of life are mountains and rocks and sand. 
Everything is dry and parched and burnt. On 
my side of this self same river are rich and fer- 
tile lands covered with luxuriant vegetation. The 
air is permeated with sweet aroma from most 
beautiful flowers; sparkling waters, cool shade, 
Bweet berries and luscious fruits are found in 



don't go to hell. 91 

every direction ; there is a ferryboat built of the 
timbers of Christianity running from your side 
to my side, Jesus Christ is the ferryman and the 
fare is prayer. Pay your fare and Christ will 
bring you over. When you get over here and 
look back you will understand by comparison 
how desolate you were. Don't think for a 
moment that by becoming a Christian you bury 
happiness, on the contrary you bury sin and be- 
come more happy than ever. I have often heard 
it said that sin would do to live by, but that it 
would not do to die by. My sinner friend, you 
never made a greater mistake in your life. Sin 
produces nine-tenths of the misery of this life 
and all of the misery in the life to come. Now 
is the time. Fathers and mothers, sisters and 
brothers, uncles and aunts and cousins and 
neighbors, now is the time to work and pray and 
plead and cry with and for your sinner relatives 
and friends that are wandering in blindness out 
of the fold of Christ. Yes, pray and plead and 
cry, Hell is near, Heaven is near, life is short, 
the sword of death is striking hard and fast all 
over the world and no one knows who will be 
next. Oh, sinners! if the prayers of your 
father and the tears of your mother, and the 
entreaties of your friend, and the love of Christ, 
and the promise of God all fail to soften your 
sin hardened hearts tonight, I will feel like 



92 

falling on my knees and praying prayers of 
bleeding anguish for your salvation, until you 
are either dead or saved. Oh, that you could 
feel as I feel. Oh, that my heart could send with 
one mighty throb one drop of my love for our 
Savior into your sin-hardened hearts and cause 
them to soften and Jswell with penitence to 
Christ. Oh, God! forgive me if this be ambi- 
tion, it is ambition for Thee and my brothers 
and sisters through the blood of Adam. 



SERMON. 



Acts of the Apostles, 27th Chapter, part of 
the 7th verse: "Saul, Saul, why persecutest 
thou me?'' 

There are thousands of good Christian men and 
women that have heard these very words ringing 
in the ears of their conscience before they ever 
thought of falling at the foot of the cross and 
begging God for mercy. Misfortune after mis- 
fortune must weigh the hearts of some people 
down in sorrow before they will turn their faces 
towards Heaven and give their hearts to Christ. 
Sickness must hover around the fireside and even 
death must take from our homes those we love 
best before some of us will turn from the Devil 
and go to Christ for consolation. The sin-dyed 
thief hanging on the cross by the side of Christ 
never thought of repentence until torturing pain 
was trying to open the doors of life so that his 
soul might go flashing on into eternity. Mother, 
father, the sunshine of your home has passed 
away; your darling baby has left the cradle 
empty; you saw its sweet little waxen body low- 
ered into the cold, damp grave — ^you went back 



^4 IK)N^T GO TO HELL. 

home weeping great tears of unconsolable sor- 
row, and in your home where peace should find 
a resting place you could not turn without see- 
ing something that reminded you of the joy that 
had fled. A little shoe, a tiny stocking or a 
broken doll, all mementoes that would cause 
your heart to swell with pain. You had been 
following the Devil all of your lifef out of the 
fold of Christ. Your lips had long since forgot 
to frame the infantile prayer your sweet, old 
mother taught you. Did the Devil whom you 
had followed through all of the years of the past 
fill up the Igreat void your innocent prattling 
babe had left? Did he whisper words of sym- 
pathy that grew into hope and consolation? No, 
a hundred times no. He filled your heart with 
despair and left you in your misery and ther& 
shedding bitter tears of mental anguish over the 
empty oracle of your lost darling, Christ came, 
gently knocking at the door of your pain-racked 
heart, and you allowed him to enter. Oh, what 
a wonderful instantaneous transformation, th© 
lights of Christ's love blazed into wonderful 
brilliancy and lit. up every darkened corner of 
your life with consolation and hope. You looked 
up, and through the veil of rapidly drying tear& 
you saw your darling an angel in Heaven, hap- 
pier than you and earth could possibly make it 
had it been spared to you. Then and there you 



t' 



don't go to hell. 95 

renounced the Devil and shouldered the cross of 
Christ. Your sweet child's mission was to open 
your heart to Christ and then wait in Heaven 
for your coming; and oh, what a happy moment 
that, when a Christian's soul breaks through its 
temple of clay and goes soaring aloft to meet the 
loved ones that have gone before. "Saul, Saul, 
why persecuteth thou me?" Sinner, sinner, 
why persecutethgthou Christ? Paul was cursed 
with blindness before his heart was softened to 
Christ. Are you waiting for God to take away 
your sight and bend your form with grief? Does 
it require some great calamity to turn your foot- 
steps from the path of sin? Sinner, you are in 
the very center of a great calamity. Now your 
€yes are covered with the scales of sin; circles of 
Hell have blinded you to Christ; you are stumb- 
ling in darkness; great ditches of death are be- 
fore you and behind you, and around you — your 
next step may be your last. Christ is here with 
the divine ointment of love; he is in every Chris- 
tian's heart; he is on that bench, and that bench; 
he is sitting by your side; he is tugging at the 
strings of your heart, but the Devil is on the in- 
side holding the latch down. There is a great 
fight going on away down in your soul --it is be- 
tween God and the Devil — which side will you 
help? The Devil holds the fort, but he holds it 
for ruin — eternal ruin! You have the right to 



96 

choose. Your heart is your own. You are free 
to make your choice — the Devil offers you 
Hell. Christ offers you Heaven. If you let the 
Devil hold Christ out of your heart he may 
never offer to enter it again. Sinner in your 
greatest affliction did you ever think of falling 
on your knees and praying to the Devil for re- 
lief? Did you ever expect any permanent good 
from his advice? You have often sought his 
apples of pleasure, and no matter how rosy and 
tempting they were on the outside you have al- 
ways found them rotten and worm-eaten at the 
core. You never did a bad thing in your life 
that didnH make you feel worse. You never 
did a good thing that didn't make you feel bet- 
ter. God rewards you on earth and in Heaven 
for your good deeds; the Devil rewards you on 
earth and in Hell for your bad deeds. God's 
earthly rewards are self respect, a clear con- 
science and a pure mind, free from the awful 
fear of eternal punishment. God's Heavenly 
rewards are unmeasurable happiness through all 
eternity. 

The Devil's earthly rewards are a seared con- 
science and impure mind racked with discontent 
and often drunkenness and prisons and the gal- 
lows. The Devil's eternal rewards are Hell and 
fire and gnashing of teeth and torturing agony 
forever and forever. Christ lightens the burden 
of life — the Devil makes them heaivier. 



97 

The heart of a pure Christian is an eden of 
joy that lights up the darkened room of sickness 
and feeds the hungry orphans of poverty. Sin- 
ners, the blood of Christ gave you the civiliza- 
tion you now enjoy. It loosened the fetters of 
slavery from womanhood and made her the pu- 
rifying essence of home, and turned the heathen 
brute man into the kind and loving son and hus- 
band and father. Our national prosperity is 
nourished by the blood of Jesus; our moral laws 
were rolled to us from Calvary on the wheels of 
many centuries. You that deny Christ would 
not for all of the world take your family and 
live among the heathens of Asia. And why not? 
Because you know your children would grow up 
in vice. While you are not a Christian you are 
gathering and enjoying the fruits of Christ's 
planting every day. You will not water the 
roots of the tree of Christianity, yet you are un- 
willing to live without the fruits. You may be 
bad yourself, but when it comes to your children 
you would rather see them in Sunday school or 
church than the saloon or gambling house. Then 
why persecuteth thou Christ; he was your friend, 
he is your friend — give your hearts to his keep- 
ing. He never did, he never will betray a trust, 
while the Devil never did and never will fulfill 
a promise. It is true that great black clouds of 
sorrow sometimes overshadow a Christian's life 



' f! 



98 don't go to hell. 

but every cloud has a bright lining and the sun 
of eternal joy shines beyond. If the sky of life 
was always cloudless there would be no rain to 
water happiness. Every cloud of a sinner's life 
grows darker and darker until the grave is 
reached and then every star of happiness ceases 
to shine. I once stood on the very top of ft 
snow-capped mountain out in Colorado. I 
looked down from my lofty height and saw beau- 
tiful Manitou nestling at the foot of Pike's Peakj 
farther on I saw Colorado Springs, and still 
farther I saw clear, crystal lakes sleeping on the 
bosom of a great prairie that stretcbed off to the 
distant horizon. Every thing seemed green and 
warm and happy away down hundreds of feet 
below. Oh, how awful was my loneliness. I 
was standing on snow rocks and snow and ice 
surrounded me. Everything was desolate and 
cold and barren. It seemed to me that I was 
removed from earth, and there in all of my lone- 
liness I heard the very words of my text ringing 
away down in my gin-hardened heart, but I 
heeded them not. I lived on in sin, until every 
impression of Christ's call faded from my mind. 
I have thanked God a hundred times since for 
giving me another chance before it was too late. 
That other chance came to me down at Waco, 
Texas. My whole body was hot and burning 
with fever. For three long weeks I suffered witb 



don't go to hell. ^9 

Intense pain, between life and death. My noble 
wife and sweet little baby girl were with me at 
the time. Often I was delirious, then I imag- 
ined I was in Hell and as my fever grew hotter 
and hotter I thought the Devil was pouring red 
hot coals of fire all over me. I would twist and 
roll and shriek with agony. I would beg for 
mercy, but the Devil would laugh at my misery 
€Lnd heap more coals on my blistered body. My 
poor wife sat by my side through the whole of 
my sickness, and gave me the medicine the good 
old doctor prescribed, and nursed and watched 
with aching heart and sleepless eyes. The doctor 
advised my wife to rest and sleep, but no, I, her 
husband, was on the very brink of death. She 
would allow no one to do anything for me. If I 
threw the cover off she was there to gently re- 
place it. If I groaned she was there to sympa- 
thize with me, and not until life gained the vic- 
tory over death and I was out of danger could 
she be persuaded to rest. Then her whole being 
<;hanged — the reaction came. The strain was so 
great, my watchful, sleepy, tired wife almost 
fell by my side. The sleep she so long needed 
eame in a death-like slumber. It was a bright 
but cold Sunday morning, the room was waTm 
-and comfortable; our little baby girl was hiugh- 
ing and playing on the carpet, and as I laid by 
the side of my sleeping wife in my convaleseiK)© 



100 DON^T GO TO HELL. 

and listened to the innocent laughter of my dar- 
ling baby, I realized for the first time that I was 
saved for earth, saved for wife, saved for child. 
Then and there I thanked God from the very 
bottom of my heart. Then the words of my text 
that thrilled my being on the top of Pike's Peak 
once more touched the strings of my soul: ''Saul, 
Saul, why persecuteth thou me." I looked 
back ovet the tracks of my past and trembled 
with emotion. A silent prayer for forgiveness 
left my heart and winged its way to Heaven. 
That prayer was answered. God touched my 
heart with the wand of forgiveness; the scales of 
sin fell from my eyes. I was almost dazzled 
with the brilliant lights of joy. Oh, how I thank 
God I was not only saved for earth and wife and 
child, I was saved for God and Heaven and eter- 
nity. My greatest blessing came from my great- 
est misery. Christ offered me salvation in my 
health and solitude on a frozen peak of the 
Rockies and I refused it. Christ offered me sal- 
vation in the presence of my wife and baby, and 
my sickness prized open my heart for Christ to 
enter and save me. When I went to Waco I 
was a sinner, when I left I was a Christian. In 
my sinful life I cared nothing for my own soul 
or the souls of men. My business was a lucra- 
tive one in my life of sin. I felt sure of a for- 
tune if I would only bridle my extravagant hab- 



DON^T GO TO HELL. 101 

its, but after my conversion I felt away down in 
my soul that I like Paul was called to work for 
souls. I studied long and hard over the matter, 
and at last decided to work for the Savior that 
had done so much for me. I quit my prosper- 
ous business and started in my humble way to 
work for God, without even knowing how I 
would get a living for my little family and self, 
but I felt sure that God would provide for us 
some how. I have shouldered the cross of Christ 
and with the help of God I am determined to 
carry it until my eyes are closed in the sleep of 
death. Oh, sinners, take my advice; take the 
advice of every Christian in this house; listen to 
the voice of Christ crying the words of my text 
in the ears of your heart. Eternity is at stake. 
Although Paul suffered martyrdom for Christ's 
sake, all of his pains and aches and sorrows have 
long since ceased to exist, For hundreds of 
years he has been enjoying the greatest pleas- 
ures of Heaven and will continue to enjoy them 
forever and ever, but you are not called on to 
suffer for Jesus. That day is past. Christianity 
will give you more real joy in one hour than a 
whole sinful life would. Oh, how wild and aw- 
ful is the great battle between God and the 
Devil raging away down in your soul. The 
Devil is trying to pull you down to Hell. For 
Christ's sake and your own soul's sake beg God 



"7n 



102 don't go to hell. 

for mercy. Throw yourself in the arms of Jesus 

and he will save you for Heaven and forever. 



SERMON. 



St. Luke, viii chapter; part of o3rd verse: 
*'And they laughed Him to scorn." 

While the great inventions of mankind laid in 
the cradle of infancy, while every pin and every 
match and every hoe and every plow was made 
entirely by the hand of man without the aid of 
the wonderful machinery of the present, while 
the tired hands of mothers and wives and sisters 
ached and bled over a few yards of homespun 
cloth; while goods of commerce were carted over 
tedious roads by the aid of horses and mules and 
oxen, invention cried, halt! steam will do the 
work. Many were weeping because of overwork, 
but instead of clapping their hands for joy they 
raised their tear-stained faces and laughed the 
very idea to scorn. Nevertheless the water 
boiled and steam arose and forced the move- 
ments of mighty machinery. But still in the 
Yery midst of revolving wheels and shrieking 
whistles there were thousands of faithless toilers 



dok't go to hell. 103 

jerring and laughing to scorn the wonderful relief 
of this mighty invention; and so it has been from 
the very beginning of creation. Mankind will 
beg for relief, but when it is offered their very 
sorrow is often turned to scorn. Jairus fell at 
the feet of Christ and begged him to restore 
health to his dying daughter. Jesus, always 
merciful to those who call on him, unhesitat- 
ingly accompanied Jairus to his home, but the 
little girl died before he arrived. All hope had 
left the members of that household. Trouble 
not the master, thy daughter is dead. These were 
the words sent out to the sorrowing father, but 
Jesus went on; even death did not cause him to 
hesitate. Oh, I can see him now, going through 
all of that multitude of curiosity hunters, fol- 
lowed by tearful, heart-broken Jairus. I can 
see him as he opens the gate and walks through 
the yard and up the steps. The young physi- 
cian has no medicine case and no fine clothes, 
but still he is the Doctor of doctors. Mrs. Jairus 
wipe away your tears, the greatest Doctor of 
all is coming. Although the darling of your 
heart is dead, Jesus will bring her back to life. 
Jairus, he is willing to do more for you than 
you asked. Love and trust him; but no, in the 
very presence of your dead child, you treat thia 
great Doctor with disrespect in your own house. 
You laugh him to scorn. Oh, what a merciful 



104 don't go to hell. 

doctor, instead of turning on you with words of 
anger and leaving your house for evermore, he 
kindly orders all to leave the room, and then 
takes the twelve-year-old maiden hy the hand, 
and with the wonderful medicine of power calls 
her spirit back to her body. Oh, Jairus! thy 
little girl is alive and well. Oh, mother! Jesus 
has brought thy child back to life. How joyful 
is the moment. But in the midst of so much 
joy, do you forget to thank Jesus and beg his 
forgiveness for laughine him to scorn. So many 
do. There are thousands of sinners all over the 
land that are laughing Jesus to scorn every day. 
Sinners, away down in your heart you fear God 
and hope to be Christians some day. The time 
was when your mother or your father or your 
sister or your brother or your child or yourself 
was very sick. The doctor was called in, but he 
or she that was sick grew worse and worse. An- 
other doctor was called, but disease seemed de- 
termined to win, and at last when death seemed 
certain; after all earthly hope had fled, you 
prayed to God.for mercy. You even promised 
that if your prayers were answered that you 
would ever strive to be a Christian. As the 
daughter of Jairus was brought back to life 
your relative or your friend or yourself was 
brought back to health. Your prayers were 
answered. Did you fall on your knees and thank 



don't go to hell. 105 

God for his mercy? Did you fulfill your prora- 
ise? Did you strive to be a Christian? No, you 
spoke of fate and said that luck was what did 
the work. You gave God treatment of contempt 
and have been laughing him to scorn ever since. 
Every sin you commit is laughter of scorn to the 
ears of Christ. Yet he is merciful, both willing 
and ready to heal and to save. In the very 
presence of scorn he raised the daughter of 
Jairus from the couch of death. Sinner you are 
dead. Dead to Christ. Your body is lestering 
in the grave of sin. The most wonderful Doctor 
Jesus is here. Call on him and every sinning 
acquaintance you have on earth may laugh him 
to scorn. Yet he will take you by the hand and 
raise you up to life eternal. Every time sorrow 
is crying, prostrated at the feet of God, the 
hideous face of the Devil is contorted with the 
Hellish laughter of scorn. You can see it on 
the street corners and in the saloons and gamb- 
ling houses and ball rooms. It even sits around 
the fireside of fashionable society. 

Sinners are never satisfied with themselves. 
They want company. It's awful pain to the 
Devil to loose one of his flock. Sinners come to 
Christ — let the Devil pull and push, jeer and 
laugh — show your strength for Christ's sake and 
for the sake of your eternal salvation. While 
the Devil is pulling and pushing and jeering 



103 

and laughing, every angel in Heaven is singing 
and rejoicing, and every Christian on earth is 
willing and ready to help you fight the battle of 
glory. It is possible that Jairus and his wife 
and his household were converted to Christ by 
the resurrection of his darling child. Take the 
remedy of salvation from the bottle of God's 
merc}^ and it is possible that your example will 
be the means of converting to Christ those who 
laugh you to scorn the most. While scorn is used 
by sin-blackened sheep of the Devil to harden 
the heart of the penitent sinner, love, pity and 
prayer is used by the blood-washed lambs of 
Christ. The one wants you for Hell and the 
other wants you for Heaven. The one offers 
you the tempting glass of sin, full of drunken- 
ness, disease and misery, the other offers you 
the white rose of Christ's love, permeated with 
the perfumes of brotherly love and peace and 
everlasting joy. Which will you have? The 
blood of Chiist is dripping from the sin-sharp- 
ened claws of the Devil, and will drip as long as 
a single sinner remains on earth. Sins are claws 
of Hell opening afresh the wounds of Jesus that 
bled and suffered and died, while nailed to the 
cross on Calvary; that wore- a crown of pricking 
thorns, and smarted under the sting of the lash 
in the hand of hatred; that wept over the sins 
of mankind, and all for the salvation of a sinful 



don't go to hell. 107 

world. As long as you remain a sinner you are 
giving evil for good; you are driving nails of 
sorrow into the very heart of Christ and laugh- 
ing to scorn the mercy of your best friend. 
What would you think of the child that would 
laugh to scorn the friendly advice of a dying 
mother? Oh, how horrible; and yet sinner, you 
are laughing to scorn the friendly advice of a 
dying savior, who did and is ever ready to do 
more for you than your mother ever did or could 
and yet a gooxi mother is one of the noblest gifts 
of God to mankind. If you have a mother liv- 
ing your conversion will be a balm of relief to 
her sympathy-aching heart. If you have a 
mother dead your conversion will be news of 
joy that will cause even the chords of the harps 
of Heaven to vibrate with sweeter music to her 
angelic ears. If you love glory come to Christ 
and you will have glory eternal. If you love 
life come to Christ and get life everlasting. Sal- 
vation is a basketful of all of the joy-giving fruits 
of Heaven. Sin is a basketful of all of the tor- 
menting fruits of Hell. Christ offers 3'-ou one 
and the Devil offers you the other. Which do 
you now laugh to scorn? Many of the fruits of 
sin are beautiful and tempting on the outside, 
but every peach of the ball room and every apple 
of the saloon, and every pear of the gambling 
house and every apricot of vanity is bitter and 



"■'11 



108 

worm-eaten under the tempting peel. All of the 
fruits of salvation are free from the bitterness of 
death. Every peach of charity is full of the 
sweet juice of happiness. Every apple of Chris- 
tian love is permeated with refreshing hope, and 
every pear of forgiveness is full of luscious joy, 
and every apricot of mercy is ramified with the 
sweet odor of friendship. The religion of Jesus 
Christ ennobles our being; it teaches us to shun 
all that is evil and seek all that is good. Scorn 
never sits on the lip of Christianity; it is found 
around the mouth of the Devil, and is used to 
weaken the weak and shame the foolish. Peni- 
tent sinners pray to God for strength to meet the 
stinging tongue of scorn with words of kindness 
from the lips of pity. Heap coals of fire on the 
head of scorn by doing good for evil. Kind 
treatment in the name of Christ will soon scare 
the Devil into silence and cause many of the 
flock of sin to champion the cause of God. 

A poor, weak, ragged beggar was invited to 
dine one Christmas day with a rich philanthro- 
pist, and as the beggar took his seat at the table 
in his rags, the other guests who were butterflies 
of fashion laughed him to scorn. The host arose 
and said those who treat the least and poorest 
of my guests with disrespect, treat me with dis- 
respect also. This dinner is for my friends. 
And so it is with the world. Christ is the host. 



109 don't go to hell. 

and salvation is the Christmas dinner, and every 
poorj starving sinner on earth is invited to eat 
of the bread of life, and they that laugh you to 
scorn are the enemies of Christ and have no 
right at the table of salvation. You that come 
to the table of salvation even in your rags of sin, 
will find protection in the strength of Christ. 
Although you may be the weakest of the weak 
and the poorest of the poor, we ride to Heaven 
in the carriage of right— not might; we go to 
glory on the chariot of hearts — not dollars. Rich 
and poor, high and low, strong and weak, the 
table of salvation is sitting before you loaded 
with the sweet confections of Christ's love and 
heavily perfumed with the flowers of God's 
mercy. All of the breads and cakes and meats 
and fruits are the best of the best. All is ready 
and the bell is ringing. There is room for [every 
hungry sinner on earth. For the sake of your 
hungry hearts, come. For the sake of all that is 
good a'nd clean and pure, come. Come, so that 
in the great end of all that is earthly, the Devil 
of Hell may not laugh your sufierings of eternity 
to scorn. 



don't go to hell. 110 



SERMON. 



Fourteenth chapter of St. John, 15th verse: 
*'If ye love me keep my commandments." 

The sweet aroma of love permeates every 
flower of human happiness. The fragrance of 
love guides the birds of the air to the nests of 
their young and the wild beast of the forest to 
the lair of their ofi'spring. It is the hand of love 
that rooks the cradle of infantile innocence and 
the lullabies of love that closes its eyelids in 
peaceful slumber. Love binds up the cuts and 
bruises of careless childhood and soothes the 
heartaches of reckless youth. It dares to kiss 
the rosy cheek of innocent maidenhood and blend 
the hearts of man and woman together. It holds 
the family around the fireside and is the one 
great spiing that waters all of the tender plants 
of human kindness; with tearful, sleepless eyes 
it bends over the form of sickness and in the 
budding of health its sympathetic eyes fairly 
dance with joy. It is boundless and unmeasur- 
able, endless and eternal. Jesus Christ stand- 
ing by the side of the Devil on the cold and 
frozen mountain peak of hate, looking down on 



Ill don't go to hell. 

a sinful world was the very embodiment of 
Heaven-scented love. It showed itself over the 
news of the death of Lazarus. It showed itself 
in blood trickling down the cross on Calvary. 
No wonder there are so many grand and noble 
women that love Jesus with all of their hearts 
and souls. In Christ's time women were kept 
very closely; they were not even allowed to learn. 
The priesthood tried to keep them as ignorant 
as possible. ^'Let the words of the law be 
burned rather than commited to a woman," was 
one of the common sayings of the Rabbi. It 
was the. love of Christ that tore the veil of ignor- 
ance from the face of womanhood and made her 
the queen of every happy home. The first per- 
son to whom the Savior declared himself the 
Messiah was a woman, and without her loving, 
untiring work for the cause of Christ through all 
of the bloody centuries of Christian martyrdom, 
the Christian religion would be a thing of the 
past. Oh, mothers and wives and sisters, God 
gave you almost unlimited power over the hearts 
of mankind. Use it in Christ's name and for 
Christ's sake. Mothers commence at the cradle; 
wives commence at the altar; sisters commence 
at the first false step. And I tell you it will not 
be long before every home will be full of the 
sweetest flowers of Christian love, and when one 
of the chairs of your fireside is made empty by 



na 



don't go to hell. 112 

the icy chill of death, you will know your loved 
one loved Jesus and obeyed his commandments, 
and that at the end of life the whole family cir- 
cle will assemble in Heaven around the fireside 
of God. The one bitter drop in the sweet cup 
of a Christian's life is to feel that I am saved 
and mine are lost. Streams of tears have been 
shed over the sins of wayward sons and broth- 
ers and fathers and husbands, and every tear was 
sparkling with love. 

You passive church members do not love 
Christ, for you do not obey his commandments. 
Instead of shouldering the cross of Christ and 
following him you lay it aside and find a good, 
soft cushion and there you sit with folded arms 
in peaceful anticipation of a better world, caring 
little or nothing for the souls of others. Is that 
the way to love your neighbor as yourself? Is 
that the way to confess Christ before men? You 
passive, comatose church members crawl into the 
silken cocoon of your conversion and expect to 
be metamorphosed into Heavenly butterflies. 
You are not obeying the commandments of Je- 
sus; you are not multiplying the talents of your 
master, but you bury those that he gives you 
and can only offer to the Lord that which is al- 
ready his. You careless, protnise- breaking 
mothers do not love Jesus for you do not keep 
his commandments. Hoiv often in the day do 



113 don't go to hell. 

you tell little Johnnie or Mary that you will 
whip them if they don't do this or stop doing 
that, and they keep right on doing or not doing 
and you keep on threatening but you don't whip. 
You do not only lie to your children, but they 
soon learn to know it. ''Now Johnnie," says 
Mrs. Busybody, ''run out in the yard and get 
me some chips and I'll give you something 
pretty." Little, innocent, trusting Johnnie takes 
the basket and gets the chips and comes back 
with his great big eyes fairly dancing in hopeful 
anticipation of his mother's promise. ''Now 
ma, here are the chips. I want my pretty." I 
havn't got it now Johnnie, but I'll give it to you 
some other time; but the some other time never 
comes, and the innocent Johnnie soon learns 
that his mother is a liar. Oh, what an example 
to innocent childhood. Suppose all of the prom- 
ises of God were like the promises of the care- 
less parent, how cold and barren and gloomy 
would be the future. Every parent should strive 
to be the same example to the child as Christ 
was to us — do not drive but lead into goodness. 
There is more strength in example and persua- 
sion than there is in driving and forcing. Oh, 
noble Christian mothers, as you love your chil- 
dren Christ loves you, and even much more. All 
()f the comforts of your home are for your chil- 
dren, and all of the comforts of Christ's home 



^m 



don't go to hell. 114 

are for you and your children and their children 
if you will only love Jesus and obey his com- 
mandments. You that think more of your chil- 
dren's bodily comfort than you do of their souls, 
must be blind indeed, for what are the comforts 
of earth in the scales of eternity — they would not 
have the weight of a feather against the weight 
of every sun and star and moon of the universe. 
Let your efforts for Jesus be untiring and undy- 
ing through the whole of your life, so the talents 
that God gave you may be doubled. If you 
would at the end of life hear the glorious words 
of ''Well done thou good and faithful servant." 
Every soul, you as an instrument in the hands 
of God, bring to Christ will be a brilliant gem in 
your Heavenly crown., You are not called to do 
what Peter and Paul and James and all of the 
martyra of the Christian religion have done. It 
was their privation and want and stripes and 
imprisonment and death that gave us the religion 
of Jesus Christ; it was floated to us on rivers of 
blood, and is now the most prominent fact of all 
civilization. 

If James, the brother of Jesus, was stoned for 
the sake of Christ, could not you mothers and 
fathers devote a little more of your time for the 
sake of Jesus and your children.. 

If Peter suffered the horrors of crucifixion for 
Christ's sake and all that have lived, and you, 



It5 don't GO TO HELL. 

that do live, and all that will live, could you not 
work a little more for God? If Paul was stoned 
and left for dead and was afterwards revived and 
in defiance of all persecution continued to preach, 
both to Jews and Greeks, can you not make a 
few sacrifices for Christ's sake. Think ot all of 
the Christian pioneers in the wilderness of idol- 
atry. Oh, how they cut and dug and grubbed 
and worked and suffered and died for Christ's 
sake. Many of them were personally acquainted 
with Christ in the flesh, and that they believed 
in Him and suffered and bled and died for him 
is sufficient proof of the glorious truths of Chris- 
tianity, had we no other proof. Atheists and 
infidels are bound to acknowledge Christ every 
time they date a letter, as all documents of civ- 
ilization are dated from the birth of Christ. 
There is no miracle in the Bible so far beyond 
my understanding as the miracle of disobedience 
among believers. That you should believe in 
the glorious rewards of Heaven and the awful 
punishments of Hell; in the unbounded love of 
God and the endless hatred of the Devil, know- 
ing that Christ never did a thing that was not for 
your good, and that the Devil never did a thing 
that was not for your sorrow. Still you prefer 
the Devil to Christ. Sinner do you love your 
good old father? Yes, And why? Because he 
is your father and has struggled and toiled and 



don't go to hell. 116 

sacrificed so much for you. Why not love God? 
He is the lather of your father and my father and 
everything that was and is and will he. He 
gave his only begotten son to the slaughterhouse 
of sin so that you and yours and I and mine 
might be saved. If the blood of Christ and all 
of the hundreds and thousands of Christian mar- 
tyrs that gave up home and wealth and friends 
and life have no power to swell your hearts with 
penitence, then yours is a heart of flint. If you 
have the heart of a human look and beg. for 
mercy. Look down, down into the fathomless 
eternity, hear the souls of the lost sizzing and 
frying on the grid irons of Hell; hear the gnash- 
ing of teeth and painful shrieks, amid the nox- 
ious fumes of brimstone boiling and bubbling in 
the cauldrons of eternal damnation. Hundreds 
of thousands of crawling, squirming, burning, 
blistered souls, and not a single one loved Jesus 
or obeyed his commandments. Lo©k up through 
the star-lit sky into the golden streets of perpet- 
ual Heaven and there see the divine face of God 
wearing the everlasting smile of love, and in the 
midst of Heavenly flowers and divine music, see 
Paul and Peter and James, and all that loved 
Jesus and obeyed his commandments. Over 
there in the very midst of Heavenly wonders see 
your good old mother and father and sweet little 
sister and brother and all of your good Christian 



117 don't go to hell. 

friends. Hold! There is a vacant Heavenly- 
cushion. Sinner, will you take it? Jesus is 
here tonight willing and ready to write your 
name on the book of eternal salvation. For the 
sake of everything that is noble and pure and 
good, fall before Christ, and with a heart burst- 
ing with penitence, give him your name now 
and forever. 



m 



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